


Journey Home

by MissChestnut



Category: Log Horizon
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2018-10-28 06:39:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 66,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10825845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissChestnut/pseuds/MissChestnut
Summary: Mikie had her life all planned out. Although, she should have known that the universe would somehow mess it up. She didn't plan to get stuck in an alternative game universe. She didn't plan to get teleported to the Japanese server. She didn't plan for her whole life to crash and burn over one game update. When the universe toss you lemons, you just have to make some lemon meringue pie. But, she can't cook. So, unless she finds help, Mikie is screwed in this overly realistic Elder Tale world.





	1. The Broken World

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is my first time writing and posting a fanfic. Please be gentle >w<; constructive criticisms are welcomed. The fanfic is based on the plot of both the anime, manga, non-canon manga, and novel. When there were any conflict between the any of those, I just did my own take on the events happened. Hope some of you out there will enjoy this. Happy reading. :)

Mikie (mahyk-ee) was a young woman in her late twenties. Mikie was not her real name; it was just a name she used in games. She didn’t particular like the name she was given, but she also felt that it was too much hassle to get it legally changed. 

Mikie led an ordinary life. Everything about her was average or ordinary. Her height – average, her weight – average, blood type and color of her eyes and hair – the most common type and color.

When she was younger, she played lot of games to escape to a different world where she can be someone different. One of these games she especially liked was Elder Tale. It had good graphics, diverse character designs, nice background music, and complex quest lines.

She thought a lot of monster designs were cool or cute. This prompted her to play the summoner class in North America server and to collect the monsters. She wasn’t the best summoner in the game because she chose the monsters based on their looks, not necessary by their skills. She still enjoyed playing the game with friends, some she knew in real life and some only online, for over four years. Over that time, she leveled up and went on many journeys with them, but then slowly people started quitting. Eventually, she quit the game also. 

As she grew older, a lot of people around her told her she was childish for playing video games at her age. She was told that she needed to grow up, be more of an adult, start a family, and act more her age, etc. The social pressures forced her to play the game less and less. In the end, she didn’t return to the game for a long time.

It wasn’t until the twelfth expansion, “Novasphere Pioneers”, that she felt the urge to play again, and at the time she needed a break from the real world. An advertisement for the game on a shopping website caught her eye. Now she had a regular job, paying the monthly subscription was easy for her. She had been curious to see how much the game had changed for a while, but the advertisement for the new expansion really triggered her old addiction. It was the perfect time for her to revisit the game again.

She had too busy with work and other so called adult stuff for the last two years to make the monthly subscriptions really worth her money. But, things are finally settling down. She graduated with a master’s degree, has a steady job, and even got engaged a few months ago. For someone who had above average luck in studies and career, she had zero luck in love relationships. It was a miracle to a lot of people that she finally had a ring on her finger at her age. To her delight, Mikie found out her fiancé also played Elder Tale years ago. With the new update, the two decided to explore the new expansion together.

 

Eighteen hours before the scheduled update, Mikie logged on to her old account. She wanted to get warmed up with playing her character so she can go out to do new quests and explore new maps when the updates arrived. To her surprise, her mediocre old desktop was able to run the game after two years worth of updates was dumped into it, and she unlocked her account in three tries.

Mikie played a level 75, half-alv summoner in Elder Tale. Like all the other mage classes, she can only equip cloth gears and use a staff on her character. In game, her character stood out a lot. All of her gears are from outdated special quests and special holiday events that were no longer available. In her younger years, she really liked the idea of being a witch. This influence can be seen in her character’s gear choices.

She looked around the server, some things looked familiar and some have changed. She felt nostalgic to be in the game again. She checked her friend list to see maybe, just maybe, someone would be on. But nope, it didn’t look like anyone from her friend list was online.

“Are you Mikie?” A chat bubble popped up on her screen. “You really do look like a witch role-player with your big pointed hat and cloak.”

“Glad we found each other in game pretty fast.” If this had been anyone else, she might have been offended. But she knew this was her fiancé, Larry, on the other side of the screen. To find each other faster in game, they exchanged user name and character descriptions. “What did you want to do while we wait for the update?”

She took a good look at her Larry’s character. A level 90 human monk dressed in leather warrior gears. It was weird. She remembered he told her he hasn’t played in years, but there were some of his gear that looked might have been from recent updates. She pushed the thought away, she was never an expert on the game so what does she really know anyways.

“I have someone I want to meet up with. We can do a small party quest together to pass time. 

Mikie and Larry met up with a level 71 female human cleric name Patty. They added each other to their own friend list and headed out to do a kill party quest to earn some quick experience to level up. Just as it sounds, a goal of a kill quest was to kill either a certain quantity of monster or a boss monster. It was suppose to be a quick and easy kill quest until _it_ happened. A few hours into the game, the group was almost done killing the mini-boss and her memory just gets cut off from there. 

 

One minute she was staring at the screen in a cave map, the next moment she woke up with a headache looking at an open blue sky. She tried to remember what could have happened, but all she could remember was a strange dream that involved a dark background, a bright moon, and words written with flames.

Mikie was a woman of science; her brain couldn’t begin to process what was going. This was not logical at all. It was simply not possible. Yet here she was, in the adventure town, the Big Apple. She was stuck in the body of her character in Elder Tale. There were hundreds of other players around her panicking and crying.

Then she remembered the two other people she was playing with. She scrambled to her feet and started running down the different streets trying to find Larry and Patty. After search for a while, she felt there was a buzzing sound in my head. As she concentrated on the noise, a voice chat notification screen seemed to appear. She pressed “Accept” on the chat.

“Hey, it’s Larry. I’m with Patty currently at the big fountain. Where are you?”

Mikie sighed in relief when she heard her fiancé’s voice. She was very glad that he and Patty weren’t in any danger, well minus being in this confusing situation, which people will call The Apocalypse.

“Stay there, I will meet up with you guys.” Mikie responded and swiftly made her way down the streets she had only seen through the computer monitor.

Thankfully, she had set her character’s height and body type to her own. Even with the cloak and big hat she was wearing, this body felt very natural and easy to move in. She was also pleasantly surprised that she had perfect vision in the game. She was very near sighted in real life and would be completely useless without her glasses.

 

The city ruins covered in foliage, the dirt street she was running on, the warmth of the sun on her skin. How can everything feel this real? The only explanation was she was dreaming. Yes, she must have gotten too tired after their party quest and fallen asleep at the keyboard. This was only a dream and only explanation.

When Mikie arrived at the fountain map, she saw Larry and Patty sitting close together chatting. The moment she saw Larry at the fountain, she ran and tackled him into a tight hug and she broke down in tears. She was afraid, so very afraid. She likes to plan her life ahead because she hates and fears the feeling of the unknown. This doesn’t mean her planning works in any shape or form. Planning just offered her a false sense of security. If life have gone as planned, she would have ended up a very different person than who was today, and probably not stuck in a video game.

Larry rubbed Mikie’s back. He didn’t know what to say at this moment; he was just as unsure of the situation as the rest of the players right now. Patty looked away from the two party mates with pouty lips.

The three weren’t sure how long they were going to be stuck here in this world. In the Big Apple, it was fairly easy to survive. As long as you have gold coins (the game’s currency). You can rent out hotel rooms, and buy food and drinks cheaply. It only took fifteen coins to get a decent room at a bar or inn and five coins to make three meals from cooking menu options. 

The food that they can make looked like five-star restaurant quality, but look can be very deceiving the group found out on their first meal. Any food they made tasted like flavorless cheap rice, and any drink tasted like plain water. However sad the taste was, they had to admit at least it fills them up. The only thing that delighted their taste buds were fruits, which are categorized as raw ingredients that do not need to be cooked before consumption. Apple and oranges still tasted like they should, but these foods do not fill them as much as the cooked foods.

 

In the next few days, things got steadily worse in the city. Despair and fear was everywhere. No one knows what was going on. No one knows how to get out of this world. No one wanted to leave the city because no one wanted to be the first to know what happens once you die in this world. People stopped selling stuff on the market, resources started to dry up in the Big Apple.

By day four, Mikie’s group eventually decided they needed to hunt for resources, level up Mikie and Patty, and get better gears from monsters or made from monster drops. If the combat system was still working as before, it should be fairly easy. This was better than sitting around town and listening to the chaos in town, and just be another one in the crowd.

Most of them still were stocked up with ingredient items, potions, and gold coins in their Bag of Gathering from when Elder Tale was still a game. The Bag of Gathering was an item earned through a beginner quest that could store and negate weight up to 200kg.

 

The trio went out to tackle a nearby dungeon that was level 60 but had good monster drops. The trip there would take a week by horse if there were any complications. The monsters levels along the way were relative low to in comparison to theirs; thus it should be an easy trip. Not knowing anything about the new world they are stuck in, the three set out for their journey five days after the start of The Apocalypse.

The first two days went smoothly, they didn’t meet any monsters at all. It is very possible that because they are so high leveled compared to the monsters around the beginner city, the monsters know to avoid them. The party grew more and more optimistic about their journey.

 

Mikie looked up from the forest clearing. It was late into the night, the campfire already died to ashes. The night sky was breathtaking. She would never see this view in her other life. There was too much light pollution everywhere, and places you can get a clear view of the night sky was limited where she lived. _This isn’t bad_ , she thought as she stared up to the clear dark sky, bright moon, and sparkling stars. Only thing she wished was better was the food, she was already sick of eating the tasteless meals that looked deceivingly delicious.

Patty made a fuss about never been camping before and wanted to sleep in a tent when they set up camp. So the couple had to figure out how to put together a tent. Then earlier in the evening, Patty thought she heard sounds coming from the trees and wanted the two to guard her tent. So now Larry was in his sleeping bag in front of the tent entrance and Mikie was on the other side of the campfire.

Laying in the dark, she thought she heard two voices whisper to each other. She sat up to observe the camp area, reaching for her staff. However, things are difficult to make out even under the moonlight and she couldn’t see much. She looked at the direction of the tent, but the two seemed to be asleep.

“Hello?” She asked the darkness, but she was careful not to wake up her companions if they happened to be sleeping. “Larry, Patty is that you guys?”

No response.

“Is anyone there?" 

The voices died down. It was silent. She surveyed the area a while longer but the voices and rustling never came back. She decided she was just paranoid. But who wouldn’t be when they are out in the wild with no roof or solid walls to protect them from monsters and the elements. After another hour or so, Mikie was finally able to tone out all her thoughts and worries, and fall asleep. 

 

The third day out in the wild, they finally encountered a group of five level 20 goblins in the woods. The goblins were really easy to kill since they only have a mindset to attack without any complex strategy. With one hit from Larry, two or three goblins fell to the ground with gold coins shattered around their body. Even Mikie could kill one of them in one or two hits with her beginner magic skills.

The group put all their most used skill on hot keys for convenience. Much like in a normal game, when they concentrated on the hot key in their mind, they can use some skills without going through multiple selection screens. The easy killing boosted the group’s confidence even more. If everything was this easy, they will be fine until help comes and gets them out of this fantasy world. After that short encounter, all monsters in that area avoided the group of adventures.


	2. When Shit Really Hits the Fan

Breakfast on the ninth morning was uneventful. Everyone was quiet as they ate and packed up their sleeping gear. Mikie thought the air this morning was a little tense, but ignored it otherwise. It was another day out in the wild, they were farther away from the city, monsters were getting stronger, and they were lost.

As they traveled deeper into the forest, the trees grow closer and the path seemed to be getting darker despite it only being noon. The dirt path finally disappeared all together into the trees and they couldn’t ride their horses anymore. They had to make some of the journey by feet.

“Are you sure we are going in the right direction?” Mikie asked for the 10th time. Larry had been leading the way the whole time and he hasn’t gotten them anywhere but lost.

“Yes I’m sure. I remember there was a forest before the dungeon when I played this dungeon. We must be close.” Larry retorted. He was a little irritated with Mikie.

“When was the last time you played though. In two years, they could have changed it during a update.”

Larry didn’t say anything after that.

Men. Directions. Stereotypical. Mikie rolled her eyes, not bothering to hide her annoyance.

They walked in a line, wary of their surroundings. Larry walked in the front since he was the tank of the group and highest level. Patty was in the middle, she claimed that she was the weakest attacker in the group and needed to be protected from both the front and the back. Thus, Mikie was in the rear position of the group.

There was no sound, no forest animals, not much of anything besides of trees, which Mikie thought was strange. A forest would usually have sounds of birds chirping and small creatures dashing about. She also felt eyes spying on the group. Something felt very wrong here. 

“Do you guys feel like we are being watched?” Patty voiced her own thoughts and grabbed on to the end of the cloth sash Larry wore around his waist, like a scared child.

“Yes, stay close to me girls.” Larry cautioned and Patty trailed behind his heels, closer than before. 

“We have company!” Mikie yelled in panic from the rear when she sees multiple pairs of red shiny rubies

It went from complete silence to the air filled with high pitch squeaking and scratching sound of the ground. Red eyes in the darkness moved closer and closer. Before long, ten weasels with demonic red eyes and vine wrapped around the tail ambushed the three-person group.

“They are Brier Weasels! Level 38-45!” Patty quickly confirmed the enemy and their levels.

Brier Weasels are common monsters found in many forest maps of the game. It wasn’t a huge surprised they would encounter them. There were more of monsters than usual for an encounter. However, with the level difference, this would still be an easy fight.

“I’m going in!” Larry used his passive hot key skill to arm up with ‘Hard Body’ and rushed in with another hot key skill ‘Wyvern Kick’.

The Brier Weasels where not much of a match for Larry; they were killed in one hit. But when one dies, two higher-level ones took its place.

“There is no end to them!” Larry yelled when more Brier Weasels took the place of their fallen comrades and attacked the monk with their barbed tails. Larry’s HP drops as he tried to concentrate to select another attack command while being hit by twelve or so weasels. It wasn’t a lot of damage done by one Brier Weasel, but it is cumulating somewhat quickly with twelve plus weasels there.

“Concentrate on healing Larry.” Mikie said calmly to Patty who was freaking out about their first tough battle and unsure what she should do.

“Summon: Slime.” Mikie selected one of her summon skills. Most of her offensive attacks were of fire attribute. She hate to find out if using fire attacks in a forest would burn the whole thing down along with themselves in it. To avoid this, she summoned a Slime. A blob of green slime dropped down from the sky and landed at the front line and started to body slam or swallow some of the near by monsters.

All of them were freaking about this battle to a different degree. This was much different than what they were used to. Fighting behind a computer screen using a body that wasn’t your real one was so much easier because you didn’t have to worry about death and any injuries. All the monsters they fought before were really easy. This felt like their first real battle and it’s starting to feel like they bit off more than they could chew.

They really didn’t want find out what death is like in this world. There were some theories floating around Big Apple like returning to the real world or just die in both worlds. They weren’t going to be the guinea pigs to find out for everyone else. Hell, if they all died here and experience death in both worlds, the other players wouldn’t even know anyways and it would be a waste anyways.

“A-alright, I will try my best.” Patty hugged her staff to her chest and shook in her shoes. A cleric’s job is to heal the team members, to make sure no one dies. This responsibility just became so much heavier when Elder Tale turned into a reality.

While Larry fought up close and taking most of the damage, Mikie did her best to support him from behind by keeping as many Brier Weasels off of him with her slime monster and elemental bolts. She was having a hard time concentrating on her attack command menu and hot keys too during a fight, so she wasn’t casting and attacking as fast as she.

The downside of her class was she had a high casting time, high cool down, high MP usage when she uses a summon skill. Without someone using a skill to help her increase her MP recovery, the only thing she can do is summon low level monster and use simple skills to slow down the amount of MP consumed.

Slowly but surely, all of them felt their HP and MP drained. They realized they were fighting a losing battle. The monsters just kept coming in waves and got steady stronger as they came. The weasels they were facing now were already up to level 68, much stronger than what they were supposed to be in this area. And they just couldn’t attack efficiently from the use hot keys and attack command menu. It just took too much concentration to open up the menu while in battle; even using hot keys took some efforts to use now.

“Larry, watch out!” Patty yelled when some more of the weasel broke through Mikie’s wall of elemental bolts and smile summon, and ganged up on Larry.

Larry’s HP was already fallen to the red zone because the weasels were getting much stronger and Patty wasn’t healing as well as she could be. At this rate Larry will die in this world. No one had any idea what happens when you die in this world yet. Will she never see her fiancé again? Panic set in.

“No! Please protect him Unicorn! Phantasmal Heal!” Mikie begged whatever higher power they had in this world to not let Larry die. Even without using her command menu, she felt her MP drained and a unicorn ran past her out of the dense woods. It charged with its horn forward towards the weasels ganging up on Larry and continued to keep the weasels off of the monk with its hoofs. And in a blink of an eye, Larry’s HP went back up to over 50%.

“How did you do that?” Larry stared at Mikie with wide eyes.

“I-I don’t know. I just yelled out of the skill I want to use and my mind and body just knew what to do.” Mikie stared back with equally wide eyes.

“If that’s the case, that will make my work much easier. Tiger Stance!” Larry stood up and took a stance with a new confidence in his eyes. “Lightning straight!” Larry called out his attacks one after another. He was attacking the weasels faster than before, and finally reducing the number of weasel on the battlefield.

Things were finally looking up for the group. The number of Brier Weasels was finally dwindling and started to retreat, they can see the light at the end of the tunnel; they can win this! Their fighting spirit grew.

The Brier Weasels that ran away from the battlefield stopped in a distance, still in view. All of them then stood on their hind legs and let out a loud, horrible screeching noise that filled the forest.

“That isn’t good is it?” Larry smiled bitterly.

“Stating the obvious, Mr. Obvious” Mikie had the same smile on her face.

“What’s everyone’s status?” Larry was out of breath. He tried to survey the damage done to the group and if they can fight another wave of monsters. He was currently a little over 50% in HP, but running low on MP from using a lot of special attacks. Monks have a low MP recovery to begin with. Patty didn’t have any MP recovery skills yet since she has concentrated in HP healing skills so far.

“I’m okay on HP but low on MP. But I’m feeling pooped” Patty reported.

“I’m in the low yellows on HP and MP.” Mikie said. Patty had only concentrated healing Larry in the front lines, leaving Mikie to fend on her own.

Larry assessed the situation. Even though they haven’t even made half way to their destination, it might be a good idea to head back to Big Apple for their own good. This forest that was much more mild and was filled with normal forest animals before the update. Now the forest has somehow turned into a dungeon of some sort. Before they could make a decision of what to do next, the decision was made for them.

Loud thumping and branches snapping can be heard coming towards them. From the sounds, the new enemy seems to be much bigger, but just as fast. To make things worse, they had no idea what to expect.

“Seems like the little guys summoned the final boss. Final decision on fighting or running.” Larry grimaced.

“Running.” Mikie have decided the risk outweighed the benefit way too much. She couldn’t take a chance on anyone dying here.

“I want to fight, I think we can win. Its one final boss and there are three of us. Please? I want to get some better gears. Please?” Patty pouted.

“I think we should listen to Mikie on this one.” Larry made the tie-breaking decision. For some reason, Mikie felt happy that Larry took her side. She had been feeling Larry gave too much into Patty’s constant spoiled attitude. “Let’s get out of here.” 

The group backtracked as fast as possible through the forest, but ended up more lost than before. There is no world map or mini map you can open up anymore. The breaking of branches and thumping didn’t stop either.

“Keep running!” Larry yelled.

No matter now fast they ran, the monster following in their footsteps was fast. Before they know it, it was upon them.

“Keeee!” A giant Brier Weasel caught up to the group and attacked the group with the vein on its tail. A normal Brier Weasel at most is a meter tall if it sat on its hind legs, but this mini boss level Brier Weasel was more than 6 foot tall on four legs. The size of its red eyes was enough to give the group a nasty chill down their spine. 

Despite its large size, it could still move and attack swiftly. 

“Siren! Put that monster to sleep with your song!” Mikie was trying to conserve her last bit of MP for an emergency. But this was an emergency.

A lavender mermaid appeared floating midair next to Mikie and started to sing a soothing enchanting tone. The Dungeon boss began to slow down significantly and eventually fell asleep.

“Take this chance and run as fast as you can! Siren, please bless us with your song of swiftness!” Mikie asked politely. 

She can’t see her summons as balls of magical energy anymore. They looked like living creatures as real as her. Their eyes shone with intelligence that can understand human speech and emotions. Sure her summons can’t die, they just need time to recover before they can be summoned again. But she can’t imagine using them the same way as she did behind the computer screen anymore. Her unicorn that fought besides her fiancé got hurt and bled like a regular horse would in battle. Each hit her summon took, she took its pain to heart. It doesn’t matter if they weren’t real, all it matters is they were real to her.

Siren smiled at her summoner and began to sing with a faster tempo. Mikie felt her body got light and she could run faster. 

They were now gaining a good distance away from the sleeping monster boss. In a distance it looks like they can see a grassy field with some big rock structures on top of some hills in a distance. Maybe it’s a safe zone, if they can just make it there, they could be safe. The group ran out of the forest. Hearts thumping loudly, grins on their face as they ran as fast as they could towards the rocks.

From their blind spot, something big dashed out of the forest for the far left towards them. It was the Boss Brier Weasel. They thought they put a good distance between them, but somehow it had caught up pretty fast even after they put it to sleep and used a speed boost spell.

It screeched horribly as it tore through the group and separated the three.

“Keh!” Another screech echoed from the forest.

Now, the group realized there were actually two giant Brier Weasels. This update must have given monster genders so they can reproduce. Players never had to think about how re-spawning worked since it was only a game and most games have monster re-spawn points. But now they were in a different world of sorts, it made sense that monster can’t re-spawn but rather reproduced. The giant Brier Weasels must have made this forest their breed nest, which explained why all the forest animals were gone and why there were so many of Brier Weasels and why their level range was so wide. 

But it doesn’t help anyone to think too much into that right now. All they have on their mind is surviving.

“Ah!” Patty, being the slowest and clumsiest out of the group tripped and fell in the grassy terrain as she tried to regroup with Mikie and Larry.

“Ugh. Mikie use Phantasmal Ride and get to safety. I’m going to help Patty. No buts!” Larry was making his way to Mikie would he saw the cleric go down with the weasels hot on her trail.

Mikie stood in place with a horrified look on her face as she watched Larry turned around in a hurry to protect Patty. She was too low on MP summon anything powerful to help. Larry was right, she only had enough MP to use Phantasmal Ride or basic attacks like elemental bolts, and neither would help the situation any.

“Snap out of it! Ride!” Larry yelled when he saw Mikie just standing there, staring at him, shaking her head and not moving.

“Unicorn. Please come to my aid and be my steed.” Mikie muttered the first words that came to mind. A unicorn ran towards her from the glassy hills and kneeled in front of her for her to get on. She spared a look at Patty and Larry, it wasn’t looking good but Larry was putting up a good fight so far and dragged Patty onto her feet.

Once she was seated on the unicorn, unicorn ran for the rocks on the hills at full speed. Riding a unicorn was different than a horse that was summoned with a flute. The horse came with riding gears like the saddle and bridle, but the unicorn did not come with anything. She was riding it bareback, hugging the horse's midsection with her legs and steadying herself by grabbing onto its mane. While it seems like it would be more difficult to ride a unicorn without the gears, she found her body already somehow accustomed to this, and it wasn’t anymore difficult to ride a normal horse with the gears.

The unicorn was fast, even faster than the weasels. It also helped that Larry stayed behind to slow them down even more. Mikie arrived at the rocks under 5 minutes on unicorn back. She waited and watched her party-mates in a distance, hoping they will survive and be here soon. But in her heart, she knew the chances of them making it was low. She waited there as long as she could as she watched the battlefield.

Eventually, she thought she saw some orbs of lights burst into the sky but the two giant weasels were still there. When the Brier Weasels caught her scent in the hills and they ran in her direction. There were no human remains left in the fields. Mikie knew what that meant. Both Larry and Patty have perished in the battle.

Terrified, Mikie didn’t know what to do. How was she supposed to survive on when a warrior class couldn’t even do much? She was too low on HP and MP to do anything. Maybe she should accept the same fate and join her fiancé. The thoughts of dying made Mikie cower. Without thinking, she moved slowly backwards towards to rocks until her back was against one of them.

She could feel magic in them, activating them when she touched the rocks. Thinking back to the days she used to play, she do remember there was a fairy ring here, ruins used for transportation in the game, east of the forest. They must had gone way off course when they were chased.

Fairy rings were finicky tools in game. It gave players the ability to teleport to different locations based on the positioning of the moon. Players usually have to consult complex online guides to figure out how to get themselves to their desired destination. To use a fairy ring without any guidance was just asking for disaster.

“Shit.” Mikie muttered under her breath as the rock formation began to emit an emerald hue.

The weasels squealed, not to be forgotten, sprinted closer. They ran full speed ahead without slowing down and collided with the rock formation, breaking the fairy ring rocks. The two searched for their third meal, but their prey disappeared with the glow of the rocks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the bad grammars and slow development. I'm fixing up grammar problems with someone's help. I do have the plot and more exciting chapters planned out. Please look forward to future updates. Thanks!  
> -BM


	3. Stuck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi~! Sorry for the slightly late update. Was out of town/in Rosemont, near Chicago, for the weekend. Brownie points for people who know where I was/what I was doing this weekend. My super helpful friend is busy with her own works so I did by best to proof chapter 3 before posting. We will fix it up both chapter 2 and 3 sometime in the future when she have time. Enjoy the new installment. Thank you!

The best way Mikie could describe being teleported to somewhere was you were at one place and then you were at a different place. There was no feeling of being separated to the atoms and then reconstructed. There was no pain. There was a bright light, nausea, and everything happened in an instant. She wasn’t sure where she was at right now, but she was sure she got out of face of death. Currently, she lay on the forest floor somewhere staring up at the dazzling lights shining through the trees.

This seemed to be a more normal forest. There was a shrine build at the roots of a big tree near her. She could hear bird chipping, small animals darting through bushes, a squirrel sitting on the branch above her. At least for now Mikie knew she was safe.

It sucked that there was no more mini-map function that she could check to see the name of the area or where the closest adventurer’s town was. She could be close to civilization but if she went the wrong way, it could take her days or weeks to find anything.

“Still better than dying I suppose.” Mikie had a tendency to talk to herself. A weird habit, but it helped her think. Her stomach was in knots. Although she avoided death, she wondered if what happened in the new dungeon was her fault and if it was the right choice to run. Would they have survived if they stood and fought together?

Her half-Alv race did have a chance to unlock bonus maps or storyline in dungeons; the percentage was about 70% chance from her experiences in the game. This was useful for higher chance of finding rare and unique items doing quests. But she do not have control over the ability or know in any way that it has worked until the very end of dungeons. She wondered if Larry and Patty might have lived if she was played a different race or if she wasn’t there with them to begin with. Why did she come back to this game again?

Maybe she should have died with the others. Dying in this game world could mean waking up in the real world, safe and sound from all the monsters, with Larry. Now, they were separated without a way of finding each other again. She checked her friend list to see if she could track Larry or Patty, but both of their names were greyed out. This meant someone is not in the game and could not be tracked. She tried her homing skill “Call of Home” but when she used it, she just teleports to the same spot in front of the tree shrine. It seemed like her reset spot had been changed from Big Apple city to this tree shrine after using the fairy ring. 

As she lay in the middle of the forest with her arms covering her eyes, she heard whisper as quite as the summer breeze. She couldn’t make out any words, just noises. She sat up quiet to see if there were any danger, but the forest remained calm and the whispers stopped just like that night when she was still camping with Larry and Patty. The thoughts of the others depressed Mikie again. 

After an hour of sitting in the same spot, Mikie finally sorted out her thoughts and decided to find shelter. What was done can’t be changed; regrets won’t do her any good now. Mikie felt very nauseous both from watching two people killed by monsters and her first teleportation experience. The best way to describe what she was feeling was be the getting spun in an office chair 50 times. She drank a mid-quality HP and MP potion to restore her condition just in case she needed to fight her way out of the forest. 

“Now where to go?” She tabbed her right index finger on her chin, thinking. “Oh, I know. Sylph, please tell me where we should go.”

A Sylph was a fairy type creature in the appearance of a young girl with big butterfly wings. Her height was less than the length of Mikie’s palm. It is a summon mostly used for casting status enhancing spells (buffs) than for attacking, but it does have some wind attribute offensive moves that deals little damage. Because of its poor offensive abilities, the MP cost to summon her was also very low.

The fairy she pointed excited in a certain direction after she came back from scouting the landscape above the trees. Sylph, like most other summon, had the ability to understand human speech but didn’t seem able to speak it. Instead, the fairy had a voice like a wind chime playing in gentle breeze.

 

Sylph sat on her summoner’s shoulder and pointed excited in a certain direction. Mikie trusted the Sylph’s judgment. So far, all her summons had shown full loyalty and hadn’t led her astray. She used her horse flute and started to travel in the direction the little pointed to. Along their journey through the forest, Mikie got bored looking at the same scenery fast and started humming a tune from her world absentmindedly. 

The tune she hummed was “Lost in Thoughts All Alone” from Fire Emblem Fates. She was terrible with song lyrics, but she remembers the melodies pretty well. She wasn’t the best singer or hummer, but Sylph seemed to enjoy her humming regardless. Sylph kicked her legs back and forth while she listened and occasionally sang along with her wind chime voice when a chorus part came along. The more Mikie hummed, the more she tuned out the rest of the world. She was almost in a trance and all her worries dissipated for a little while. While she spaced out, she heard voices from the forest again.

“Hello?” Mikie asked the trees, but no one answered. She really thought she heard someone out there faintly whispering the lyrics that she can’t remember to her tune.

Mikie asked Sylph if she heard anything, but the fairy girl just tilted her head cutely and then smiled bright back at her. Mikie didn’t know if that was a “yes” or “no”.

Mikie rode on horseback for 30 minutes before Sylph’s summon time was up and the fairy had to leave. Mikie was sad that Sylph had to go. She like Sylph’s presence and voice, it kept her less lonely.

Sylph pointed one more time in the direction Mikie needed to go before flying into the woods. She could summon Sylph immediately again to keep her company, but she should conserve her MP for emergencies. Also, she have no idea where her summon magically came from. In this world, the summons probably had their own life to live when they were not being called on.

It was already getting dark in the forest by, Mikie decided to find a clearing and set up camp. Without the others here to help her to gather firewood and pitch tents, she opted to not set up a tent, and quickly dug up the forest ground, and gather some dry leaves and branches to make a campfire with her basic fire magic “fireball”.

Her fire magic in battle was practically worthless since it was a beginner skill she obtained through a low level tome from when she first started the game. At her current level, there was no reason for her to use it in battle since she now had many other stronger skills. But now stuck in this strange world, it was pretty handy to start up a fire quickly.

Tonight, she decided to sleep under the stars in her sleeping bag. The sky looked clear, so she hoped for a low chance of rain tonight. While she started to feel drowsy, the she heard whispers but eventually fell asleep. Then, images of Larry and Patty’s deaths plagued her dreams.

Next morning, she packed everything up and summoned Sylph again to check the directions before heading out. 

A few times in her travel, some low level goblins and shaman goblins jumped out of the bushes, blocking off her path and attempted to ambush her. Instead of running away, Mikie took these opportunities to learn how to fight better in this world. After three encounters, she felt like she was getting the hang of it. Instead of concentrating on the command menu, she concentrated on the attack she wanted to use and the motion and magic came naturally. She felt physically exhaustion when her HP dropped and mental fatigue when her MP dropped.

Through trial and error, she found out a few things. First, she could not attack or summon while on horseback. When she encounters monster, she needs to be off the horse before she is able to use her skills and attack. Second, monsters seem to ignore the horse she summons by flute during battle. So she doesn’t have to worry about protecting her ride during battles. Third, she cannot cook raw ingredients in game. She thought if the individual raw ingredient still had its food taste, if she tried to cook it over her fire like in her world, it would taste good too. But whenever she tried to cook, her ingredients just turned into black charcoal or black goo. Lastly, her humming attracted voices and forest animals. The voices seemed to appear when she clears her mind. She was starting to think she was going crazy. It was probably because she had been in the forest without human interactions for too long. Anytime she started to concentrate on those voices or find them, she stopped hearing them. However, she did enjoy attracting forest animals, it made her felt like a magical princess.

She wasn’t sure these occurrences were due to her subclass, which was Diva (also known as Songstress in other servers). Although she wasn’t very good at singing since her subclass level was only at level 15 and she wasn’t good at singing in general, her level did raise everyday from her humming to herself.

 

By dusk of her seventeenth day in this world, she made it to the edge of the forest and saw smoke and small building in a distance in the highlands. That must have been the village Sylph saw from above the forest. Mikie could feel her heart pounding in excitement. She hasn’t seen another human or slept in a comfortable bed for a long time.

She raced her horse in the highlands, straight for the village. When she arrived, the moon had already replaced the sun in the sky. She counted about fifteen wooden buildings and lots of farmland in this village. The farmers already packed their tools and headed went home for the day, and the village streets were empty. The buildings looked similar, yet slightly different, than the villages she had been in the past in the games.

She knocked on the doors of the biggest building in the middle of the town. If the set up the houses is what it was like in the game, the biggest one in the center should be the city hall and she could ask the NPC who was designated as the head of the village for help. The lights were still lit inside; she hoped someone was still up.

“Coming!” A deep voice of an elderly sounding man called from behind the closed doors. The doors opened to reveal an elderly man had short curly white hair, a big white mustache, glasses, and a big beer belly dressed in plain clothing opened the door. His appearance reminded Mikie of a village extra from a movie and a kind grandfather. He introduced himself the village elder in charge. He looked at Mikie’s attire. “Are you a traveler? We haven’t had any here for a while now.”

“Yes, my name is Mikie. I’m a lost adventurer trying to shelter for a night in exchange for some gold coins.”

He lead Mikie to hay shed and told her to make herself at home for the night, and he will prepare some breakfast for her in the morning when she handed 10 gold coins. Then the village elder left the girl to have some privacy and rest since it was already late into the night. After the elder closed the shed door behind him, Mikie jumped into a giant pile of hay. She has never been so excited to see hay.

“This feel so much better than the forest floor.”

Mikie was glad that the barn was well insulated with some kind of concrete paste. While the weather in this world feels like a lovely warm summer’s day in the daytime, the nights can still be chilly. The sleeping bag just couldn’t keep on all of the cold. She had gone through some chilly night out in the forest, and hated to find out the hard way if she could get sick in this world.

To give her self more privacy, just in case someone decided to come into the shed in the middle of the night, she moved some of the hay to a corner. She moved enough hay to make herself a twin size bed. Tucked in the corner, she found a Japanese style paper privacy screen in storage here and decided to borrow it for the night. Before sleeping, she opened her friend list to check if Larry and Patty’s name was online again. But like all the previous nights, both of their names were still grey. Then she tucked herself in her sleeping bag for extra insulation and fell asleep before she started to count sheep.

 

Man, did she sleep well. She finally had a dreamless night of sleep, not plagued by the images of her fiancé’s death or stuck in this world forever. Morning came sooner than expected. The annoying early sunshine shined through the windows that she didn’t notice the night before.

“Ugh, sun.” Mikie mutter begrudgingly. But then she remembered that she was a guest at someone else’s place. _Time to get up._ She decided after few minutes of counting wood panels on the ceiling.

She headed out of the shed and was surprised at how lively the village was compared to last night. There were already farmers in their field hard at work. Women dragged dirty laundry somewhere for a wash. Children ran around in the streets with chickens. She debated if she should start singing “Belle” from Beauty and the Beast because she was having a small village moment.

“Hello!” The village elder waved at Mikie from the city hall entrance.

“Bonjour!” Mikie waved back. She doubted he got the reference though.

“I see our guest is up. Would you like to join us for breakfast?”

Mikie followed the elder man to kitchen in the back of the building. There was a young girl and boy around seven or eight already seated at the dining table. There were already four plates lay out for each of them and more plates with toast, butter, strawberry jam, cooked sausage, and over-easy fried eggs in the center of table.

“Grandpa, hurry up. We are hungry.” The little boy pouted at the old man.

“Yea, hungry.” The girl mimicked her brother like a parrot.

“Alright, alright. Hold your horses. Our guest is here.”

Once Mikie was seated, everyone started eating. During breakfast, the grandkids kept asking Mikie about her and her travels; where did she come from and where she was going. Mikie tried kept up with all their questions.

“Let her eat in peace. I apologize for my grandkids.” The grandfather smiled apologetically.

“No it’s fine.” Mikie smiled back kindly.

To Mikie’s surprise, some of the items seemed to have some flavor. Her dance buds dance in delight at the sweetness of the jam, and the creaminess of the butter. But she didn’t really understand why some of the items had flavors and some didn’t. So she stuffed her mouth with toast slathered in strawberry jam.

“I’m glad you really like that jam. It’s a family recipe. You can buy a jar or two if you like.” The old man chuckled in delight. Mikie just nodded her head wildly at the offer.

 

After breakfast, she sat at the dining table with the kids while the grandpa cleaned the dishes. She told them the world of big cities and machines, her journey from a city called Big Apples, and now separated from her group and lost. She did take out the gruesome parts of her journey, like people dying, because she thought it wasn’t kids appropriate.

“Big Apple? If there are so many people at Big Apple, the apple must have really big then!” Ivan, the grandson, asked as he tried to imagine just how big the Big Apple Mikie came from was.

“Is the Big Apple tasty?” Mischa, the granddaughter, asked.

The more she talked with kids, the less she felt they were pre-programed. They were just so curious about everything about the outside world like kids from her world. The NPCs, non-player characters, before the game turned real, only had repeating dialogs. They did not have a past, future, personalities, or thoughts besides the little bits they were programmed with for certain quests. 

This interaction with the NPCs, or people of the lands as they call themselves, was more than something that was preset. They have memories, past, hope, and thoughts. Talking to them was no different than talking to any other human beings. 

The Novasphere Pioneer update had increase the number of NPCs. Usually in a village of this size, there were only five to ten NPCs, ones that had functions like manning armor or potion shop and ones that was there to fill the space. Now the village seems to be more full. There had to be at least thirty NPCs who interacted with each other. Mikie could not complain about the interactions one bit. After spending so much time in the woods with no human interaction, she welcomed it with open arms. 

“You must have come from a long way.” The grandpa chimed into the conversation. “We are a small village in the Yappa highlands. I haven’t heard of a city with that name before. The only major city that I know of is Tsukuba.”

Mikie wasn’t familiar with that city name at all, and it sounded Japanese. Mikie started to think maybe she wasn’t in the North America server anymore, and maybe she was now stuck somewhere in the Japanese game server.


	4. Life in the Yappa Highlands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting after a long day/week. Please enjoy chapter 4! :)

Mikie’s first thoughts were oh sh*t and this is just her luck. In the other world, she had been told told multiple times that she swore a lot for her line of work. On some bad days, her co-worker told her that her language could make a sailor blush. Also, she was known to have bad luck. If there were a bag of nine fruit flavored jellybeans and one booger flavored one, she would get the nasty one on the first pick.

Then her thoughts turned into denial. She was a woman of science. If she was really in the Japanese server known as Yamato, how can she be talking to these People of Lands in the same language? She was completely sure they were speaking the same language. The style of the building and way people dress didn’t look Japanese at all. The people here didn’t look a bit Japanese either. She can’t be in Yamato. Right. Right? Her mental wailing was cut short when a middle-aged woman entered the room out of breath.

“Help! Help!” The woman sobbed hysterically. “My son hasn’t returned yesterday. We went out to the fields to look but we couldn’t find him. The wolves came. There was remains of one of the sheep, but we can’t find him.”

The village elder immediately took to the woman to another room, away from the children, to find out more of the situation. Mikie, unsure what she was suppose to do, stayed with the children who seemed disturbed by the sudden intrusion. She stayed with them and taught them some simple games from her world, like cats cradle and patty cake. The games successfully kept the children occupied. After a bit of time, she heard a set of footsteps walking out of the building and another heavier set coming back to the kitchen. The elder sank into a chair and sighed deeply when he entered. 

“What’s wrong?” Mikie inquired purely out of curiosity from part of the conversation she overheard.

“We have some Dire Wolf problems as of late. There is a pack of them that seems to be migrated to the forest close to village. They occasionally picked off our cattle and sheep when we let the livestock out to graze. This is the first time a human, let alone a child, had gone missing.” The elder could not conceal his heavy face full of worry. 

 

Dire Wolf was a giant wolf usually travels in packs like normal wolves. They attack with their poison fangs and claw. This can make them difficult to deal with if there were a lot of high levels ones in a big pack. 

From more conversing, Mikie learned that even as the population boomed for People of the Land after the expansion. Their fighting capability was still the same as before, essentially zero since most NPCs were designed as non-combatants in the game. There were a small number of People of the Land given the ability to fight depending on their purpose in the game. However, there were none in this village. 

No, Mikie wasn’t trying to be a hero. She, for lack of better word, was bored and lost. She didn’t know how long it would take her to find a way to an adventurer’s city. It could be weeks or month. It didn’t matter to her if she stayed at the village for an extra day or two to help out. Out of boredom and concern, she told the elder she would look into the problem for them. She rode her horse to the place that was reported to be a common attack site. Sure enough, she saw a mangled carcass of a sheep in the grass field with flies buzzing around it. In a short distance, she saw the edge of a forest. It looked harmless from here, but she knew the dangers of those woods from the villagers.

 

Well, how do you track down a pack of wolf and a missing kid? In her world, she remembered police dogs could sniff out bombs, criminals, drugs and missing persons. The closest thing she had to a dog was Ifrit.

“Ifrit would you please and help out?” Mikie hopped off her horse and called for her fire attribute type wolf summon.

A crimson colored wolf with a set of impressive dark horn adoring his head ran across the valleys of the high lands. He puffed out his chest proudly and howled into the sky to announce his arrival once he was on a hilltop nearby. 

Mikie squealed inwardly and hugged the big wolf like greeting a friend. “Man, you look so impressed in person.” Ifrit was bigger in person than expected. He stood taller than a large wolf. Mikie estimated that he was probably the size of a pony. He was probably big enough to ride if she wanted to.

Her compliments delighted the wolf to no ends. He straightened his back, puffed out his chest even more, and waved his tail behind him like a happy pup. Mikie danced in circled around him looking at all the little details she couldn’t see through the screen before.

“Ifrit, I’m trying to track down a little boy that was around here yesterday. Some Dire Wolves might have gotten to him. Can you pick up any scent of him or the wolves?” After she examined her summon to her heart’s content, she decided to get back to business.

Ifrit sniffed around and a scent trail of something. He barked, eager to have Mikie follow him in the direction of the forest.

“Okay boy, don’t get too excited. We just want search and rescue. Once we find him, we will make a run for it. If we are too late…then we will scout out the enemy today. We need to make sure we won’t be overwhelmed in battle later.”

That dampened Ifrit’s spirit a little. From Ifrit’s personality, he seemed like a proud warrior who loved battles. But he respected his summoner’s wishes regardless and nodded to her request.

As Mikie followed behind Ifrit, she could see a trail of drops of blood. She felt her stomach churn. She wouldn’t say she had a weak stomach. She took human and animal anatomy in school. She dissected frogs, cats, and little sharks before. She loved criminal shows that showed blood and gore. But to be involved with a real life murder was just too different than cutting open dead animals and watch fake blood splatter behind a screen. She really hoped they were not too late to save the boy.

 

They must be close to the pack. Ifrit’s steps became lighter and he crouched low to stay out of sight. There was also the smell of copper in the air the closer they got. If she listened closely, she could hear ripping of flesh and crunching of bones. Mikie felt sick. Unconsciously, she moved closer to Ifrit and held on to his coat. She felt cold. She was too late; the Dire Wolves had already eaten the boy. She struggled to breath and lightheaded. 

She peeked through an opening between the bushes to survey how many they were up against. She count six wolves dining another bloody mess in the small clearing. One extra stood on top of big rock covered in moss on look out. Their levels weren’t too high compared to hers; they were only high 30s. If they attack now, they will have the element of surprise. Winning was possible. But then, a howl came from behind them, and all of the other wolves knew they were here.

The red encounter symbol appeared in Mikie’s mind. Crap, she had missed the one scouting around the pack. There were eight of them and they just lost their element of surprise. No pointing of hiding now. She and Ifrit slowly rose up from behind the bushes. Ifrit was about the same size of the Dire Wolves; this made Mikie a little more nervous about their chances of winning. 

“You think you can take them on, buddy?” Mikie licked her dry lips out of habit.

The wolves in front of them stared them down. Some snared, some growled. However it was the wolf behind them that made the first move. He leapt. Mikie frozed in her spot. The size of those things brought back the memories of the giant Brier Weasels. Mikie was terrified. Her heart pounded in her rib cage, but she couldn’t find the strength to move or attack. But Ifrit didn’t hesitant. He leaped to meet the Dire Wolf in midair, bit the wolf in the neck, and tossed it to his pack mates.

Ifrit declared war with a howl and jumped in for a fight. Seeing the Dire Wolves scratching and biting Ifrit with their poison fangs, Mikie finally snapped out of her fears. She had to fight for Ifrit; she owed him that much for saving her 

“Burn them to the ground!”

Ifrit formed a smirk when he hears his summoner finally was putting her head into the fight. He felt the mana she provided him. He jumped six feet in the to air and attacked with a fire area of effect, or more commonly known as an AOE attack. The main point of the AOE attack was not to kill the Dire Wolves in one go, but to damage them enough so they would concentrate on him instead of his summoner. As he fell, Ifrit ready Blazing Claws to fight close range; he specialized in physical fire attribute attacks.

Mikie was thankful at least one of them had lots of experience in battle. Ifrit was doing a really good job attacking and protecting her at the same time even when he was outnumbered. She decided she would treat Ifrit to some raw meat as thanks after this was over. But for now, she will support him from afar and even out the odds for him a bit. Her magic attacks weren’t the strongest out of the mage classes, but it was still enough to kill one of the wolves in two to three hits, if they hit. Her accuracy was a bit lacking.

 

The battle raged for only fifteen minutes, but it felt like fighting in a raid for hours. Eventually, all eight Dire Wolves lay dead in the clearing. They have won. A wave of accomplishment washed over Mikie and she sank to her knees in disbelief. She won a fight on her own. No, they won the fight. Mikie smiled at Ifrit who howled proudly while standing over the biggest wolf before running off into the depth of the forest. His summon period was over. 

Mikie decided there was no point of going back empty handed. The wolf’s fangs, claws, and pelt were all material that the players could make or upgrade equipment with. The villagers might even have some uses for these things. So she picked up the coins scattered in the area and did her best to dissect the wolves. It wasn’t until late into the afternoon that she finished collecting everything into her magic bag. 

She rode back into town by early evening. All the villagers came out to greet her with big smiles on their face. She averted their gaze. How can she tell them she couldn’t save the boy that went missing?

“Mom! She was amazing! You should have seen her! She and her pet fire wolf beat those Dire Wolves so fast! It was so cool!” A young boy with saggy dark hair and missing front tooth carrying a shepherd herding staff too tall for him yelled from the crowd. “She got rid of the wolf problem for us!”

“But I couldn’t save the boy that went miss.” Mikie hanged her head in shame. “I was too late.”

“What do you mean? He is fine and dandy right here.” The woman from this morning slapped the boy that was talking on the back hard.

“Ow. Ma!”

“Eh?” Mikie was confused.

“He came back to the village midday today on his own with the sheeps. He was scared to come back to tell me and his da that the wolves got two of our sheeps.” The woman explained. “Thank you for looking for him Miss adventurer.”

 

The villagers prepared a big feast to thank Mikie. They even showered her with gift that consisted of eggs, milk, wool, meat and other raw ingredients. The village elder welcomed Mikie stay in the shed for free as long as wanted or needed to. Mikie remembered that she wasn’t the only one to thank for the occasion and summoned Ifrit for the second time today.

The villagers were frightened by the beast at first, but warmed up to Ifrit rather quickly. He lay on by Mikie like a loyal dog and letting all the children in the village pull on his fur, ears and tail every way without showing any signs of aggression. He actually looked quite content with the children’s attention. To Mikie, Ifrit seemed used to young kids. She wondered if he was a dad himself and had small Ifrits where he lived. She smiled at the thought.

“Thanks friend.” Mikie put some raw meat the villagers had given her in a pile in front of Ifrit.

Ifrit bowed his big head in thanks and gobbled up the meat in no time.

The village became very curious of the big dog summon and Mikie’s magical powers. The children thought Mikie was a magician and could do wonderful tricks. They all wanted to see more. So Mikie entertained them all with summons and spells that she thought was safe for party tricks. Even though the food was bland tasting just as before, Mikie didn’t mind it one bit that night.

The next few days, Mikie stayed in the village and helped out with different tasks. She still hasn’t figured out where she should go and unfortunately no one in the village knew either. None of the villagers traveled, and there were no library for her to look up maps. She monitored the village borders to make sure there were no more monsters threats, entertained the kids with magic spells, and helped out the farmers with watering their fields with her Undine water summon. She was just starting to get use to her daily routine when one stormy night changed everything.

 


	5. The Storm that Changed Everything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay finally time for the canon characters to show up. :)

Mikie came back into town early evening after she made her rounds around the village like usual. But she didn’t beat the rain clouds that rolled over the hills. She was soaked when she made it back to the entrance of the village. She had an anxious feeling something was different tonight because when she was out patrol, she heard excited whispers by the forest and on the grassy hills; it sounded like they were saying, “arrived”.

When she finally made it back to the shed, she saw lights and voices coming from within. Usually the town elder did leave a light for her if she came back after the sunset, but hearing multiple voices in there was not normal. As she got closer, she heard multiple people getting excited over hay as she did on the first night here. Then, she heard two voices bickering about bed sizes. She heard the village elder, two male voices and one female voices in total.

“I do ask you guys not the disturbed the bed made in the corner there. I have another guest staying here.” The elder said to the group.

“You have another guest here?”

Mikie could only see the back of the man who asked the question. He wore a big white cloak and carried a long staff. It looked like the group had set up the wooden dining table and chairs that were stored in the shed. The man in the cloak was currently at offering tea to the elder at the table. Along with that new man, there was also a large guy in armors arguing with a small black haired girl over hay off to the side. 

“Yes, she was a lost adventurer that showed up four nights ago. Oh, look here she comes now.” The elder noticed Mikie standing in the doorway and waved her over to the table.

“Hello, I’m Mikie.” Mikie greeted shyly. It felt like it had been too long since she saw real people. Sure she had been spending time with people of the land, but there was still a difference when talking to other people from the other world.

The two over by the hay joined them at the table when they noticed the new person in the shed. The adventures went around and introduced themselves to her. She learned Shiroe was the enchanter with a very scholarly look with the big glasses. Naotsugu was the guardian in armors. Akatsuki was the dark haired assassin. 

“This is a good village, we can live here with no worries. Especially after she helped us with our Dire Wolf problem.” The village elder said with a big smile. Then he noticed the grandkids at the door eavesdropping. “Don’t just stand there, come in. Don’t be afraid.” 

Ivan and Mischa greeted the new adventurers and were super fascinated with Akatsuki. They kept following her and asking her to do ninja tricks. The rest of the group sat back down at the table and the elder retold Shiroe and Naotsugu fondly of the tale of the twins’ birth. Then the grandkids called the elder away from the table. 

“They seem very human don’t they?” Naotsugu asked.

“They are human.” Shiroe and Mikie corrected him at the same time. This launch a discussion on how much the NPCs have changed after the new update.

“He mentioned you were lost, we love to help cute girls out.” Naotsugu gave Mikie a playful grin. The small dark haired ninja rolled her eyes at the man’s playfulness. 

“Where did you originally from?” Shiroe asked with his fingers laced together in front of his face like a scientist.

 

So Mikie told the two of where she had came from, how she got here, and the people she was not separated from. She didn’t know where she was or how to get back. Naotsugu’s expression changed from playful to concern, Akatsuki knitted her eyebrows together, and Shiroe wore an emotionless, analytical look.

“What?” Mikie asked the three. “What’s with the serious looks?” 

“I’m afraid you are in the Japanese server now.” Shiroe just confirmed her fears from the first day she arrived in the village.

“But then how can I speak the same language as you. I don’t know any Japanese. You guys sound like you are talking in fluent English to me.” Mikie still tried to denied the fact.

Shiroe gave his hypothesis of an auto translation function in this world. This was why they were able to understand each other and people of the land. It made a lot of sense in a lot of ways. Mikie paled from realization. A gloomy mood engulfed her.

“Good news Shiroe-chi nya!” A gentleman sounding voice broke up the mood at the table.

“What is it?” Shiroe and Naotsugu stood up to greet the new voice.

Mikie tried to get a glimpse of the new company from behind Shiroe and Naotsugu. She gasped at the tall, talking cat standing on his hind legs with dual rapiers. Of course Mikie knew there was the playable werecat race in the game, but to see one up and close was very different and strange. He reminded her of The Baron from animated film, The Cat Returns. After she got over her initial fascination with the cat man, she noticed a young cute girl following closely behind the cat.

“We went around to some neighboring houses. They were nice enough to sell ingredients to us nya.”

“Isn’t it wonderful? We have milk, cheese, sausage, butter and eggs! I bought sugar in Susukino. So we can bake cookies. Right, Nyanta?” A high-pitched chirpy voice said excitedly. 

“We also brought cabbage and potatoes nya.” Then the werecat seem to notice the woman that wasn’t here before the two left. “Who do we have here nya?” The cat smiles kindly at Mikie.

“Um, Hello, I’m Mikie. A summoner.” Mikie felt very awkward to stand to introduce herself again. Man, she really sucked at this social thing. But then again, she wasn’t really social to begin with in the real world. She wasn’t super awkward around people, but at the same time she wasn’t a party animal that hosts numerous people or hitting up the club every weekend. She would probably fall in the more normal range in actuality.

 

The werecat introduced himself as Nyanta smiled. He was a dual blade swashbuckler. He was tall and lean, and he wore an attire made him look like an English gentleman. The more he talked, the more Mikie thought about The Baron. The ways the cat held himself and speaks were all very proper. The young girl’s name was Serara. She was a druid that was recently rescued from Susukino. The girl was shorter and looked like she wore many layers over herself. 

From their speech patterns and behaviors. The werecat seem to be much old than the girl by ten or twenty years, but this didn’t seem to stop the girl to have a crush on the werecat. Ah young love, Mikie smiled at the girl who stared dreamily at the old man every chance she got. It was cute, but seems very one-sided. 

“Cookies?” It seemed like the foreign word caught the attention of the grandkids and grandpa.

“You will see nya. With so many extra guests tonight, I really need to start cooking nya.” The werecat winked at the crowd and went to prepare food over the stove. Serara followed him to help with prep work. Mikie tailed after him curious.

Nyanta mixed up eggs, butter, sugar, milk, and flour with care. He made some dough and some batter. He rolled out the cookie dough and Serara shaped the dough into cookies to bake. He added fresh berries into the batter and poured it into muffin tin. Watching the cat work was like watching a 5 star chief work. It was graceful and smoothing. Still, she didn’t understand why he was putting so much work when everything would just taste the same anyways. 

“Why do you put in so much effort?” Mikie had to ask. She couldn’t conceal her curiosity any longer towards the Nyanta’s actions.

“Are you taking about the bland tasting food, Miss Mikie? Nya.”

“Just Mikie, please.” Mikie didn’t like it when people addressed her as Miss or Ma’am. It made her either feel like a kid or an old woman. “Yes, if it all going to taste the same. Why do you put in so much effort?” She asked again.

As Nyanta cooked, he explained the cooking concept he had discovered. Mikie listened intently and asked questions on things or terms she didn’t fully understand. Nyanta was patient as a saint; he explained things in details that satisfied Mikie’s curiously. As Nyanta cooked, the food didn't turn into black censured goo; a delicious smell filled the room instead. Mikie knew Nyanta’s every word must be true. Food cooked through the menu option did not have any smell at all. But the smell of Nyanta’s cooking made her mouth water.

“It will be done soon. Please be patient a little longer, Miss Mikie.” Nyanta smiled kindly at the woman who looked like she was staving.

“Just Mikie is just fine.” Mikie reminded Nyanta without taking her eye off the stove.

 

Nyanta and Serara set down three plates of different kind of biscuit. There were shortbread cookies, ladyfingers, and berry muffins. The elder, Ivan, Mischa, and Mikie all stood around the tablet. They were staring at the food like they had never seen food before.

“Go on nya.” The cat encouraged everyone to start eating. 

“Nyanta’s cooking is delicious!” Serara cupped her red cheeks in her hands. 

The twins immediately grabbed the shortbread cookies and put one in their mouths. They squealed in delight at the sweet taste. The village elder took a shortbread cookie too, but gave it a stern look before taking a cautious bite from it. He seemed surprised and pleased at the taste.

Mikie smiled at the family before nibbling on one of the berry muffins. It smelled heavenly and tasted even better. It was not too dry or dense. The berries just provided enough tartness that complimented the sweetness. This was better than anything she could get from grocery stores back home.

“You are like a food magician, Nyanta.” 

“Thank you, Miss Mikie. You overpraise my skills. Nya.” At this point Mikie decided his cat must be too old since he seemed to have memory problems already.

After stuffed full of cookies, the twins were tired. However, they refused to go to bed quietly. They wanted to hear stories of the group’s adventures before going to bed. So the adventures from Akiba all sat around the tablet and told them tales of their travels in the last week and half.

“I will carry them to bed. But before I do so, there is a request I have of you.” The village elder said to the group. “Is it possible for you to help Mikie here?”

The request seemed to surprise the group. 

“Mikie, why don’t you travel with them? They can probably help you get back to where you need to be or find the ones you are looking for.”

“Eh?” It wasn’t even on Mikie’s mind to travel with this group that just happened to show up tonight. She was going to travel and figure things out on her own pace. She felt like she would be a burden to the group of people she just met. It would be convenient to go to a big city in Yamato with more players to gather more info. But, she would have to rely on a group of strangers she just met. She could just ask them for a map and travel that way. Yea that seems less burdensome. Before she could say anything, the group of adventure seemed to have come to a conclusion first.

“You can come along with us.” Shiroe said after quickly weighing the pros and cons. 

“We would gladly to take cuties that wears pan-” Naotsugu was cut short when he was sent flying into a pile of hay by a knee to the face.

“Is it alright for me to knee this pervert in the face, My Lord?” Akastuki asked the scholarly man after doing so, and then she apologized for her companion. “Please ignore this stupid pervert.”

“Welcome Miss Mikie nya.” One day, she would find a way to correct this cat. 

The small druid girl just wore a small shy smile.


	6. Puny Humans in the Sky

The morning announced it self by flooding the shed with bright sunlight after the storm. The light didn’t bother Mikie at all since she couldn’t fall asleep last night at all. She was scared, worried, and excited. She was going to travel again.

Hope of finding a way back is higher now she is going to an adventurer’s city with thousands of people, an information hot spot. Almost two weeks as past since she left Big Apple, there must be new information about this world, how it functions, and how to leave. At least, this is what she hoped. She decided to take a walk through town one last time. The chances of her ever coming back was low, she should say goodbye to the kids. She decided to step out of the shed as quietly as possible to get some of the cool fresh morning air to help shake off her jitters. All the other members were still asleep. _Not morning people_ , Mikie mentally noted.

Personally, Mikie wasn’t a morning person or a night owl. She just goes by her own schedule, although it had been messed up pretty good by being in this world. Her physical form was different than her real body. This form had more stamina than her real body; she could run faster, walk longer without fatigue. In the other world, she was naturally lean, but she wasn’t very active or healthy. She just got fast metabolism that allowed her to eat all the take out she wants without ruining her figure. With the crazy odd long hours she worked, she found it difficult to cook; take-outs was just so much more convenient. Larry once said her cooking was only mediocre at best; that just increased her lack of motivation to cook even more.

 

“Good morning, Miss Mikie. You are up early. Nya.”

Mikie jumped out her skin. She had been walking through town, helping out the villagers and entertaining the kids one last time. Currently, she was helping a farmer water his field with her water spirit, Undine. She thought she was the only one awake, but clearly proven wrong.

“You are up pretty early yourself. Sir Cat.” Well if Nyanta wasn’t going to stop, she might as join him.

“We are about to have breakfast, nya. Would you be joining us?” Nyanta said without missing a beat.

Mikie couldn’t hide her annoyed face. She had hoped that the new nickname would bother the werecat more, but it almost looked he rather pleased with the title she bestowed on him. If swashbuckler was surprised or annoyed with the new nickname, he was very good at not letting it show.

Mikie said goodbye to the farmer and followed Nyanta back to the shed in silence. She did not know the ages of anyone in this group, but somehow Nyanta made her feel young child getting into trouble again. The silence was getting too awkward for Mikie to handle. She wasn’t particularly social, but she felt the need to say something to break it.

“So…are the others up yet?”

“Not yet. But the smell of breakfast will sure to wake them. Nya.”

“What’s on the menu?”

“I am thinking about omelets. Nya.”

Mikie didn’t know what else to say and the conversation died off again. They were only halfway back to the shed. Mikie dreaded the rest of the walk back. Man she wished she learned the art of making conversation in the other world. She talked to many people through out the day, but most of it was work related. She had been told she was good at her job. But outside of her work, she lived under a rock.

“It is kind of you helping the villagers out, Miss Mikie. Nya.”

Surprisingly Nyanta spoke up first. He must have notice how uncomfortable she was getting, and she was thankful that he did. He seemed very considerate of others. Now if only he is considerate enough to drop the Miss in front of her name like she had insisted multiple times now.

“We are leaving today. Even though I have only been here for a few days, I will miss this place. So I thought I would say bye to the villagers. Will you drop the Miss already, Sir Cat?” Mikie reminded him again. But Nyanta didn’t respond at all. She knew he was not going to change his way anytime soon since he was probably secretly enjoying tormenting her this way.

“So, how long will it take to get to Akiba?” She changed the topic.

“Shiroe-chi estimates about three days nya.”

“What is Akiba like?”

“I personally haven’t been. I have been in Susukino since all of this had happened nya.”

“What is Susukino like?”

Nyanta told her of the lawless city North of here and all that have happened up to this point. When he finished, they arrived in front of the shed. The rest of the party started to wake when they entered. Nyanta cooked up a simple, yet delicious, breakfast. Everyone ate and packed up. Before midday, the party of six headed out the village.

 

“Wait!” Two children’s voice yelled after the group. The twins ran while Ivan waved his left hand that was holding a slip.

“Here.” He shoved the piece of paper into Mikie’s hand. “It’s a present from grandpa. He said it to thank you for helping out the village.”

“It is the family recipe for the strawberry jam that you really like.” Mischa chimed in when Mikie was trying to make out what was written on the paper.

“Tell your grandpa thank you from me. Make less trouble for him too, yea?”

“No promises!” The twins said before running back to the village.

The group walked down a dirt path. The village got further away with each step. The group chatted lighthearted, but Mikie stayed out of the conversations. She didn’t know if it was appropriate for her to just jump in and chatting with the group that seemed to know each other pretty well. 

 

“This seems like a good spot.” Shiroe announced once they are out of in the middle of nowhere, and the village completely out of sight. 

Before Mikie could asked why they have stopped. Shiroe, Naotsugu, and Nyanta took out a wooden whistle that made a high-pitched noise. Then three griffins landed in front of each of them. Mikie was too excited to see a griffin in person. She loved the Harry Potter series. Heck, even her current attire was heavily influenced by series. One of her favorite magical creatures in the book was the Hippogriff, which is pretty much a griffin.

“They are friendly.” Shiroe said to Mikie who was star struck, but kept her distance from the creatures.

“We are flying?” Mikie asked excitedly. Knowing it was safe to approach. Mikie went up to one of them and bowed. Yes, she was a big Harry Potter fan and she loved Buckbeak, the hippogriff. To her delight, it bowed back immediately.

‘Hello, young one.’ A voice said in her mind. Unlike the other voices that just sound like background noise or static, this one was soft, but clear.

She looked around. Everyone was busy packing up their stuff and saddling up the griffins. She looked back to the griffin, which nodded at her.

‘Don’t look so surprised.’ The giant mammal gave her a slow blink.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to have her fly with the pervert, My Lord.” Akatsuki voiced her concern.

“Hey, what was that Shrimp?”

“Naotsugu’s griffin is the only one who can carry one more person.” Shiroe state. Since Even though there was room for one more person. Naotsugu wore big armors; it will still be a tight squeeze for Mikie.

“If we are flying, I might have a solution.” Mikie summoned her newest summon she obtained before quitting the game, Phoenix.

The giant flaming bird of rebirth landed by the group. However, unlike her other summons, Phoenix did not look pleased to be called on.

“Can you give me a ride with Phantasmal Ride, please.” Mikie asked the big red bird. She wasn’t too surprised by Phoenix’s attitude. In the game, you had to tame the summons by using food, grooming, and training to be able to use them efficiently. Phoenix, being new to her team, still had a low taming level. There was a high chance that it would not obey her.

Phoenix looked at Mikie like he was considering her request.

‘…Meat.’ A difference voice from before said. This one was mixed in with a lot of noise. Mikie almost didn’t make out the words. Wordlessly, Mikie dug out some raw meat from her bag and gave it to the bird. ‘…Okay…’

The bird then lowered his body to let Mikie on.

‘…More…later…meat.’ The voice came in and out like a bad radio station.

“Okay, I will give you more meat later.” Mikie stored her staff, hat and other loose items in her bag so they won’t fall off during the trip.

Satisfied for now, Phoenix straightened himself.

“We are ready.” Mikie yelled to the others.

The griffins took off one by one, and then Phoenix followed. The take off was surprising smooth. Despite Phoenix’s grouchy attitude and Mikie’s lack of a saddle, he took extra care during the flight to make sure Mikie didn’t fall off. Today was a great day for flying. Flying without a roof over her head, Mikie had a great view of the blue open sky. 

“Amazing. It takes a view like this to make you feel tiny.” Mikie said quietly to herself as she looked below. The forest looked like a giant blob of different shades of green. The trees were moving quickly under them. 

‘…Humans…tiny…ants ’ Phoenix snorted. Mikie didn’t catch the whole thing but it seemed like Phoenix made a joke at her expense.

“Why can I hear griffin’s voice better than yours?” 

‘…Humans not smart…’ was the only thing Mikie got. Then Mikie didn’t get any of what the bird was trying to say after that. After a while, Mikie gave up. She couldn’t make sense of the random words. Her brain was getting fried from trying to put the words into coherent sentences.

 

Because of the daily restriction on the griffin whistles, the group was forced to camp out in the wild for two more days. Mikie was still not sure where she fit in the group. Slowly, she opened up to them after they made an effort to include her in their conversation. She realized they were a good group of people that was made up people with different quirks.

Shiroe was an intelligent man with wicked beady eyes behind his glasses. Naotsugu was a gentle giant with unparalleled passion for panties and other perverse things. Akatsuki was a quite girl of short stature who was dedicated to her ninja role-playing and Shiroe. The small ninja girl definitely fancied her lord. Mikie noticed saw the shy glances the small girl takes that went unnoticed. Serara seemed like the youngest member in this group. She just lacked a certain maturity about her that the rest of the group had. By the same maturity standard, Mikie determined that Nyanta was probably the oldest member. But this did not stop Serara crushing hard on the role-playing werecat. The funny part about love was while it was obvious to other people; all the parties involved seemed rather clueless.

Three days after they have left the small village in Yappa Highlands, Naotsugu announced that they were approaching Akiba. Mikie saw a big city full of stone ruins and greenery from the back of Phoenix. Through the journey, she learned that when players die, they revived at set points like the cathedrals in the major cities. This meant that Larry was still out there, alive! Her heart pounded in her chest. She was now one step closer in finding a way back to the Big Apples and her fiancé.


	7. Loneliness

Mikie and her recent companions touched down a few miles out of the city and rode their horses back the rest of the way. Once they were in the city limits, they were immediately surrounded by ten or so adventures from the same guild as the young short girl. Mikie was just thankful they were here for Shiroe’s group and Serara.

Mikie was forgotten in the background, but she didn’t mind at all. She didn’t know anyone here. She wasn’t even that familiar or close with Shiroe’s group. She didn’t fit in no matter how she thought about it, and she wasn’t the type who liked to be in the spotlight either. From listening to the pieces of the conversation, she picked up on the small details like this guild is called the Crescent Moon Alliance; Maryele, an elf girl with long green hair in the group, was the guild’s charismatic leader; and there was a welcome back party waiting.

While the group chatted about many things, Mikie studied the busy city. It was the same and very different than the big apple at the same time. The two cities were the same in the sense that the setting was a millennia into future. Mother nature had reclaimed many lands and buildings that were ruled by men. But the cities were also different due to the difference in cultures in the two lands. It was evident in the traces of concrete buildings and roads that survived the years. Mikie had always been fascinated with Japan’s food and culture. She never imagined she would visit it in this fashion. 

“Niichan-” A boyish voice yelled but then stopped.

Mikie turned her head on instinct to direction noise. She searched the crowd of people in the streets. None of them stood out or approached her group. _Someone was probably meeting up with another group_ , Mikie decided after a while.

“They are leaving.” Akatsuki’s soft voice snapped Mikie from her dazed. It seemed that the whole group started to move towards the Crescent Moon Alliance guild to have a merry time without even realizing the two girls were missing. Mikie could tell Akatsuki was not the social type, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t friendly. She was glad that Akatsuki warned her so she wouldn’t get left behind in this strange city alone.

“Thanks, Akatsuki…san?” Mikie didn’t mean for that to come out as a sentence. Even with the help of a translator tool in effect, there are some words in Japanese language that doesn’t translate well. She had explained to the group the language gap. Japanese honorifics were examples that Mikie had a hard time understanding. She had gotten the general concept after the group explained it to her, but it was still difficult to put into practice.

“If honorifics are difficult, it’s okay if you don’t use it with us. We understand.”

Mikie gave the ninja girl an appreciative smile in response. 

 

The party was to celebrate Serara’s safe return to Akiba. It was held in at the Crescent Moon Alliance guildhall. It was a space with seven rooms. Each of the room, minus the storage room, was decked out with general party decorations. The main room for the party was lined with tables with plates of food and glasses of drinks.

Moments after they entered the guild, Mikie had lost sight of all the familiar faces. Nyanta had gone to the the guild’s makeshift kitchen room, Serara was busy chatting and handing out food room to room, Naotsugu and Shiroe was lost in the crowd somewhere, and Akatsuki seemed to have been snatched from her side by mysterious shadows.

Feeling like she doesn’t belong again, Mikie made a plate of food, took a glass of drink, and opted to sit in a corner of the makeshift kitchen. She watched Nyanta and other chiefs in the guild hovering around stoves and oven, and Serara coming in and out of the kitchen to bring more food out. _Staying a wallflower and out of everyone’s way is good,_ Mikie decided while munching on the various delicious foods.

“Miss Mikie, food is more delicious when eaten in the company of others, Nya.”

Mikie jumped a little when the sage cat suddenly talked to her. She didn’t realize anyone had realized she was there.

“No, this is okay. I actually prefer this.” Mikie sighed deeply. She felt drained from being around all these strangers and didn’t bother correcting the werecat. Mikie wasn’t the super social type. She was the type that preferred to have a few close friends rather than a lot of friends who she rarely knew.

“Making new friends is good for a lonely youngster, Nya.”

“I don’t need new friends. I need to find a way home.” The words came out more bitter than Mikie had realized. But she was one to speak her feelings without filters. Mikie felt bad, but couldn’t find the right words to correct herself either. She lost her appetite no matter how good the food was and started to play with the food with her fork. Nyanta remained silent in his own thoughts while he cooked.

People laughed, drank, and ate at the party; time flew by for them. But for Mikie, time was dragging. After staying her in corner for a long time, Mikie finally couldn’t stand how painfully slow time was passing for her. Without anyone noticing, she snuck out of the loud celebration and into the dimly lit, but quiet city.

 

It was much later into the day. The sky had already darkened to a pitch black, the moons and star shone brightly, and streetlights were lit. Most adventurers had already retired for the day. Mikie wondered the quite streets. She wasn’t worried about being attacked or mugged since she was within the city limits. If anything should happen, the royal guards would show up like in all other major adventure cities.

With nothing to do, Mikie wondered the streets of Akiba. She just let her feet take her to everywhere, and yet at the same time to nowhere. No matter how much she walked, she didn’t feel tired. Finally she found herself at the base of the biggest tree at the center of the city by a still pond that reflected the dark sky like a mirror.

After wondering around town, she got lost. She couldn’t remember how to get back. Every building and street started to look alike. Sitting on the root of the tree, loneliness overcame her. She hugged her legs to her chest, feeling her eyes tearing up. This was the first time she felt truly alone in this foreign world and didn’t belong. Before, she had Larry and Patty. She was by herself in the Japanese server, and now lost in town. Feeling sorry for herself, she let out a pathetic sob. One sob then turned into many. The tears kept flowing without any signs of stopping. Mikie didn’t know how long she had cried, but she cried until she had no more tears to shed.

It felt good to have a good cry like this. Mikie had tried to be strong since the day everyone became stuck in this world. She tried to put on a strong face for Larry, for Patty, for herself. But one thing became another, and everything finally snowballed into something too big that she couldn’t bear it anymore.

‘Danger.’ ‘This way.’ ‘Run.’ Different voices overlapped and whispered in Mikie’s ears that confused her. Where they talking to her or to someone else?

“Look what we have here.” A raspy male voice cut through the silence. “A helpless little girl.”

“A crying girl.” A second shady male voice said.

Her pathetic sobbing must have attracted some dangerous predators. Mikie pursed her lip into a thin line. She could hear two sets of footsteps shuffling in the grassy terrain and saw an orb of light in a distance. From just their voices, Mikie felt a shiver down her spine telling her these people were trouble. 

“Don’t call me little or girl, I’m probably older than both of your ages combined.”

“You give us respect. We are from the great guild Hamelin!” The second male said the name like it was supposed to mean something.

“It looks like this one doesn’t know her place in the world yet.” The raspy voice said. 

Both of the voices sounded like they were both closer. Two status bars showed up when Mikie focused on the general directions of the voices. Both were level 90 players, one was a guardian and other a sorcerer. They were probably from some big shot guild in this area trying to bully and take advantage of lower leveled players from smaller guild or those with no guild affiliations. It wasn’t like it was her choice to not be in a guild. After quitting so long, the guild she was in disbanded, and she just hasn’t had the time to join a new one yet. 

“Come closer and I will scream. The royal guards will come.” Mikie warned her assailants.

“No honey, there are some loopholes with the royal guards system you don’t know about. No one will come.” The buff warrior in armors said with a sick smirk that made her stomach churn. “We can do a lot of things to you and they won’t come.”

“As long as we don’t attack you in the game sense, they won’t come.” The sorcerer made a grab for her arm, Mikie dodged back.

The guardian joined in this game of cat and mouse. She was glad that both characters were not super agile. Guardians are big and bulky and sorcerers were not known for their speed either. As long as the two don’t use special skills, she could avoid them and run away. The moment they used any skills, they would risk summoning the royal guild as they have leaked earlier.

“Taunting shout!” The guardian yelled into the night.

Mikie felt like she couldn’t take her eye off the guardian even though she saw the sorcerer made his way behind her from the corner of her eye. Royal guard didn’t show up either. _Taunting shout is considered a passive skill, thus must not trigger the royal guard. Damn, another loophole_. She thought as she felt hands grab her arms from behind.

"Look at her figure. I can tell she have a nice ass from back here." The sorcerer called to his partner. 

Mikie could feel almost feel the perverted gazes over her body from the two males. She was sure if she wasn't struggling hard as she was against the sorcerer, he might even go for a feel. She was in big trouble now. She didn't want to imagine what they would do to her if she didn't get away soon. But after some quick thinking, she did have one trick to get her out of this tricky situation.

“Scape-doll.” In poof of smoke, the sorcerer was holding a small ragged doll in his hands that resembled her outfit instead of her. Mikie made a run for the streets of Akiba hoping there would be someone that was still in the streets who might be able to help. Scape-doll had a 5 minutes cooldown. She would have to figure out how to survive by other means if she was caught again.

“Get back here, Bitch!” the two Hamelin members yelled after her.

‘Run.’ The voices urged. ‘Turn left.’

Without thinking, Mikie turned left onto another dark street. She turned to peek to see the gap between her and the two males. They were fairly closely; there was low chance of losing them at her speed. Can she summon Unicorn without waking any royal guards?

“So this is where you were instead of the party, nya. Having fun nya?” Nyanta seem to be just casually walking the streets when Mikie ran passed him.

“Not so much.” Mikie smiled at this familiar voice and face.

“Give her here, Cat. She belongs to us.” The guardian huffed from a short distance away.

“I do not believe Miss Mikie here appreciates being called a property, nya.” The werecat put himself between the hooligans and the maiden. “You youngsters should run along now. We don’t want any trouble, nya”

“Why do you go nya nya nya, it’s only cute when a girl does it. It’s creepy from an old man.” One of the boys said rudely.

“This is the only correct way for cat people to speak, nya.” The werecat said patiently to the two. “If you would excuse the two of us, we must be heading back, nya. It’s past this one’s bed time, nya.”

“Stop with the nya’s, it is disgusting and annoying!” The two boys charged. They had the level and royal guard loophole knowledge advantage. Nyanta was level 90, and Mikie was still only at level 75.

“We can’t fight them. They know some loopholes on how to fight without alerting the royal guards.” Mikie quickly informed Nyanta.

“Then, we are going to run. Hold on to me, nya.” The cat man tossed Mikie over his shoulder, not giving her much of a choice in the matter. Nyanta has much higher speed stats than the any of them here. Sure, this was the best choice, but Mikie didn’t like being treated like a sack of potatoes. It wasn’t very comfortable for her either, but it did give her a good view on the other two’s position behind them. They were slowly widening the gap, but not fast enough in Mikie’s opinion.

Mikie started to hum what she remembered of the melody to Siren’s song of shiftiness. Being a songstress, she magically already knew some songs from Elder Tale when it was still a game. Those songs however were just for show and did not grant any special status. But now the game turned reality world, she found she could learn to sing songs that grant boosts or debuffs as long as she learned it through lots of practice, and if her Diva/Songstress subclass level was high enough. Why learn the song yourself as oppose to just summon a monster to do it for you? Well, it was handy to use buffs and debuffs without using up mana, and it was possible to learn songs of monsters you don’t own. Soon, they left the guardian and sorcerer in the darkness and reached the safety of the Crescent Moon Alliance guild hall.

 

“I’m sorry, Nyanta.” Mikie couldn’t meet the cat in the eye once he had let her down. She felt guilty that she had caused trouble for the others, especially when she was their guest.

The sage cat raised a brow at the mention of his name. No nickname, no teasing. He enjoyed teasing her by continuously putting Miss in front of her name despite her complaints. Her reactions and responses to him was a fun pastime. He was even amused with his nickname she had given him, Sir Cat. But this girl now was different, like she lost the fight in her. _It is still too early this youngster to lose her fighting spirit._  

“We want to be your friends Miss Mikie. You just have to let us, nya.” Nyanta put a hand on Mikie’s head like a parent would do for a child and ruffled her hair gently.

“Then stop treating me like a kid because I’m not a high school kid like those two back there.” Mikie pouted at the werecat’s action and slapped his hand away lightly. She grumbled displeased while smoothed out her messed up hair.

_There she is_. Nyanta smiles fondly as the woman before him regained her spirits a little.

“Yes, yes. But now it’s time for bed for this young one, nya. You will never grow any taller if you don’t get enough sleep, nya.” Nyanta led Mikie through the rooms before they arrived in the makeshift kitchen.

“I already told you. I’m already at the age I won’t grow any taller! I demand you to stop treating me like a child, Cat!” Her demands were only met with a soft chuckle like she just told a joke. The old cat wasn’t taking her seriously at all!

“There is no one in the kitchen, nya. You can sleep there, but it will get loud in the morning when we cook breakfast, nya.” Nyanta must have noticed how antisocial she was previously. She was thankful to the werecat for the suggestion.

“Thanks, Nyanta-san.”

“Sir Cat will do like always, nya. Good night, Mikie, nya.”

“What?” Mikie didn’t know if she heard the cat right. She stared at him with surprised eyes.

“Good night, nya.” The cat winked at her before walking out of the room. “The sun will be up in only a few hours, nya.”

“Well, shit. I guess I won’t getting much beauty sleep tonight.” Mikie mumbled to herself and got ready for bed after a rough night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating regularly nowadays. Just have a lot of things going on right now that are killing my motivations to write and update. I wonder if people are even enjoying this fanfic, and if I should continue. So far I have the fanfic written up to chapter 17, but not sure if my writing/plot is any good to continue.


	8. Food with Taste

“I am making a guild called Log Horizon. Will you join?” Shiroe seemly asked out of the blue one morning during breakfast.

Mikie was not expecting to be asked to join the group long term. Mikie had only known the group that consisted of Shiroe, Akatsuki, Naotsugu, and Nyanta for two week now. After the talk she had with Nyanta the night of Serara’s welcome back party, she tried to open up more to the group. She found that everyone was nice and treated her well. Akatsuki was a quiet girl, but also shy and friendly. Naotsugu loved panties, but was a friendly giant. Shiroe had wicked calculating eyes, but was polite and helpful. Nyanta was a gentleman in all aspect, but seemed a bit emotionally distant to everyone.

“We have big plans to change this city. We could use all the help we can get.” Shiroe then continued to explain the current state of Akiba to Mikie, and also to the rest of the adventurers. He talked about how he didn’t like how everyone had fallen into ranks based on their guilds, shady dealings some guilds were involved in, and a plan to rescue some people he knew.

“I don’t even have a good understand of the Japanese server. Won’t I be a burden instead?” Somewhere in the back of her mind, it still told her she was just a burden to the group, and they would probably prefer she left as soon as possible. Also, she really doubted she could do much to help the group with the ambitious objectives they had planned.

“You are not a burden at all.” Shiroe said to the insecure woman.

“My Lords is right. You are trustworthy.” Akatsuki chimed in, which is rare for the quiet assassin.

“You are the only one who I can have a discussion about panti-!” Naotsugu pitched in, before getting a knee straight into his face. “Let me finish for once Shimp!”

Mikie actually didn’t find Naotsugu’s open love for panties and women too inappropriate. She knew that Naotsugu was pretty much all talk and harmless. Besides, it was normal for most boys and men to be fascinated with the opposite sex, and she had dealt with more perverse men in her life previously.

“Perverted Naotsugu.” Akatsuki humphed.

“Shrimp!” Naotsugu glared back. 

“We enjoy your presence immensely, nya.” Nyanta smiled at how lively the group has gotten.

“I don’t mind joining, but I’m still not sure how I can help.”

“Don’t worry, I have it all figured out already.” Shiroe said with a calculating look behind his glasses.

 

The next few days were busy for the new guild. After Shiroe officially registered the guild with the guildhall, he sent each of the members on different duties. Naotsugu and Akatsuki were sent to investigate and collection information on various guild activities in town. Shiroe went to ask The Crescent Moon Alliance for assistance. Nyanta and Mikie were busy deciding and preparing a fast and afford menu for the events to come.

In three weeks of time, the preparations were complete and it was finally show time. Dressed in an outfit crossed between a fast food worker’s outfit and a maid outfit, Mikie stood in front of one of the three stores the Crescent Moon Alliance had set up across the city. With a bunch of promotional flyers her in arms, she took a deep breath to shake off the nerves.

_Trust in the Shiroe’s plans, it will work._ Mikie repeated in her head. Passing out flyers was the only she could help out with. All of the other guild members were tasked with other things she could not do. Akatuski was spying on the Hamelin guild’s activities. Naotsugu was busy capturing livestock for ingredients. Nyanta was busy cooking along with the rest of the chefs from Crescent Moon. Shiroe was busy with being the mastermind behind everything. 

Mikie was socially awkward, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t know how to deal with people on a professional level. In her day job in the real world, she had to deal with people everyday, polite and rude. When the Crescent Moon members opened up the doors for business, Mikie put on her work face and started to approach some curious eyes with a big friendly smile.

“Good morning! Please check out the tasty items in the shop.” Mikie said in a pleasant cheery voice and handed a flyer to a cleric. She did the same thing with a few others. But as soon as she had her back turns, they would just toss the flyer in the trash after one look at the items and prices. 

Mikie and Nyanta had put a lot of thoughts into the items and pricings on the menu. The two had spend nights talking about foods, and she spend days watching Nyanta slaving away on the stove. After half of hour with no results, Mikie was starting to feel a little discouraged.

 

“I won’t pay for this expensive food, but I would pay for a date with you.” An adventure hit on one of the other girls passing out flyers. He had back one of the girls into a wall and trapped her between his arms. If the girl were interested, Mikie would have left things alone. But in this case, the girl clearly felt her personally space intruded and looked very uncomfortable. Mikie’s mama bear instinct kicked in.

“She clearly feels uncomfortable with you. Leave her alone!”

“You are kind of cute too. I can go out with both of you.” The male adventure was just not taking a hint or was a natural ass. 

“Take a hint, no one here wants to go out with you.” Mikie rolled her eyes at the ass, but she did some quick thinking on the spot to turn around the situation. “But why don’t you try our food. If you don’t like it, I will go out with you.”

“15 gold for a date, sold.” The adventure smiled confidently. “Give me one Crescent Burger.”

“One Crescent Burger coming up.” Mikie grabbed the burger and handed it to the rude adventurer. This burger wasn’t a normal burger that people have seen in this world so far. Instead of smelling like nothing and tasting like plain rice, this smelled meaty and greasy. Mikie smirked when the adventure bite into the burger and had a variety of expression displayed on his face. First he had a confident smile, then surprised, and then pure ecstasy like he was eating the greatest thing he had every eaten.

“Did you enjoy that?” Mikie smiled a smug smile. She already knew she won.

“This is amazing! It actually taste like a hamburger from the real world!” The whole commotion attracted a crowd. Everyone who watched the scene now rushed into the store to buy the various foods available.

“Thank you for coming!” Mikie and the others yelled after happy customers leaving the store.

 

After what it felt like a long day, all of the items except the Black Rose Tea were sold out. A lot of costumers had to leave empty handed because the demand heavily outweighed the supply. Overnight, the whole city knew of the Crescent Moon’s food stands.

“Ah, what a long day!” Mikie happily changed out of the cutesy work attire in Crescent Moon’s guildhall. “A bath sounds super nice right now.” Adventures never have to worry about their daily hygiene and glooming needs because this world’s messed up mechanics got it all magically covered. But taking a bath and shower still felt good and relaxing after a long day.

“Um…Mikie from Log Horizon?”

“Yes?” Mikie turned around and saw the girl who was being harassed from this morning.

“Th-th-thank you for earlier today.” The young girl bowed. 

“We are on the same team now, so don’t worry about it.”

“I overhead that you were looking for a bathing facility, I’m sorry. I can show you where our bathing facility is?” 

Because Mikie’s own guild has not gotten their own place yet so soon after being established, Marie-nee was nice enough to let all of the Log Horizon members temporary stay in her guildhall during the duration of the partnership for Shiroe’s plan. 

 

Walking down a hall after her quick shower, she heard Akatsuki’s wailing about how she was betrayed by her lord, again. Henrietta, the guild manager and accountant for Crescent Moon, had a weird hobby of liking to dress up cute small girls in similarly cute clothing. It was creepy to the point of borderline perverted. But maybe this was a normal thing in Japan. Mikie decided to avoid going down that hallway for now and wait it out in the guild’s makeshift kitchen for the whole operation. 

“Good evening. What brings you here Miss Mikie, nya?” Nyanta greeted her when she entered. 

“Oh, not much. Just avoiding some dangerous commotions happening down the hallway right now, Sir Cat.” Mikie answered without skipping a beat. Nyanta chuckled at her reply. Then Mikie noticed how high the moon had already risen and all the cooks were still slaving away over stoves. “You guys are working late.” 

“We are just finishing up preparations for tomorrow, nya”

“Anything I can help with?”

“Well, we are developing a recipe for ice cream to add to the menu, nya. It hasn’t gone too well. I was hoping for your advice Miss Mikie, nya.”

“Now you are just assuming all females like ice cream.” Mikie gave the sage cat a teasing look, which Nyanta returned with his signature cat smile. “But sure, I see what I can for you guys. What do you need me to do, Sir Cat?”

“We made a prototype in the freezer. Perhaps you could have a taste and give us your opinions Miss Mikie, nya.” 

Mikie grabbed the small container of “ice cream” which looked more like a milk flavored shaved ice. Mikie grabbed a small metal spoon and took a bite. Instead of tasting a creamy delicious treat, this just tasted like sweet icy milk.

“Yea, this taste like a low fat ice cream they make. It doesn’t taste creamy and it is icy too. Try using a heavy cream base if you can. Maybe a bit more vanilla taste into will improve the taste too.”

“Hm. I think we can improve on the ingredients, nya.” Nyanta thought deeply. “But we will have to think about a new method to mix the ice cream, nya”

“How are you been doing it before? Have a sorcerer use ice magic freeze the mixture and then blend it until it was smooth?" 

“Very perceptive, Miss Mikie nya.”

Mikie wanted to facepalm. But at least she had an idea on how to fix it since she did make ice cream in a chemistry class back in the states. “Is there a metal can with a lid, two oven gloves, and a sorcerer that can use ice magic?”

“Yes. What are you thinking Miss Mikie, nya?”

“Well I made ice cream this way more than 10 years ago, but I think it will give the ice cream the ice cream texture.” Mikie explained to the chiefs on how to she made ice cream by putting the ice cream mixture into the metal can with a lid. Cool the can with ice magic and roll the can back and forth until the mixture turns solid with oven gloves on to prevent cold fingers. “This will take much longer to do, but it will be closer to what you guys have right now.”

“Hm, this has been very insightful. Thank you for your help Miss Mikie, nya. Could I bother you again for a taste test when we have another prototype done, nya?”

“Of course, I am always up for ice cream Sir Cat.”

“Well as apology for having you taste a such poor prototype, would you like to be the first to try the pizza and custard pudding recipe we have developed, nya?" 

“I have learned to never say no to food.” Mikie ate both samples that were offered to her. “Yum!” 


	9. Silver Linings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A filler type chapter unfortunately to help the timeline along

Two days after the grand openings of the shops, Shiroe somehow have gotten additional help from someone he knew to open up a fourth store. The new store was run by a guild called West Wind Brigade. Souji, the guild master of the guild, and some of his guild members were helping out. She heard rumors from the members of Crescent Moon that the West Wind Brigade was a famous harem guild here in the Japanese server. Mikie haven’t met this Souji, but from all she had heard from all the whispers and gossips, she could only assume he was quite the lady-killer.

Three days after opening, Shiroe, with major negotiation help from the Crescent Moon, secured a contract for supply, and pizza and custard pudding were added to the menu at the shops.

Five days after, the three production guilds each pitched in 1.5 million gold to the Crescent Moon’s campaign. 

The ninth night, excitement buzzed within Crescent Moon. Then the real plan was going to start when the sun rises.

 

The night before Shiroe would change the way of life in Akiba, Mikie decided to take a stroll in town one last time. She knew by now that Shiroe was a genius and had the nickname of the scheming four eyes’. Everyone was confident in his plan. But she also knew now life really was, a lot of times things do not go according to plan. It wasn’t her in plan to be stuck inside a game. It wasn’t her plan to be stuck half way across the globe with no way back. Mikie sighed heavily in the chilly night air.

“Is it wise to walk alone this late in the night Miss Mikie, nya? Last time it didn’t go so well, nya.” It seemed like a familiar werecat had followed her from the guildhall.

“I’m getting too nauseous thinking about tomorrow. I needed the fresh air.” Mikie shivered and rubbed her hands on her arms. She was feeling both chilly from the night and a little self conscious under Nyanta’s disapproving look. “Besides, ever since the shops opened. The city has changed a little, for the better.”

“Well, I do enjoy an evening stroll myself, nya. The cat people clan is known to be creatures of night, nya.” Nyanta just invited himself to her evening walk. But she knew he was doing this to for her safety since the city was not stable yet and there were still shady people, like from Hamelin, out there. Once everyone started talking, Mikie found out she wasn’t the only one that got attacked by someone from that guild. Hamelin had assaulted two members of the West Wind Brigade too. Those two women didn’t get out as unsheathed as Mikie did, and their whole guild suffered greatly after the event too.

“You are too into role playing.” Mikie chuckled to her self as the two walked down the streets together. A cold breeze blew pass the two and Mikie sneezed into the cold air.

“You shouldn’t talk behind people’s back or you will sneeze, nya.”

“I wasn't talking behind your back. I'm stating it clearly in front of you. Besides, I don’t think that’s why I sneezed. The air is just chilly that’s all.” Mikie stuck her tongue out at the older adventurer. Nyanta smiled at the response. He took off his green coat and put it over her shoulder like a true gentleman. “You are living in the wrong time period. But thanks.” Mikie teased but accepted the coat and pulled the jacket closer around her. The coat still had some of Nyanta’s body heat retained in it, so it felt nice and warm. The two walked in silence but the Mikie asked the question that was bothering for the whole night. “Do you think Shiroe’s big plan will work?”

“Shiroe-chi was our stagiest in the Debauchery Tea Party, nya. He is the best of the best. You can put your complete trust in him Miss Mikie, nya.” Nyanta seemed to smile at some old memories.

“But he doesn’t trust me much. I mean everyone else is doing something important tomorrow, and I’m going out to the shop like normal.”

“Nya.” Nyanta thought for a little while to formulate a response to this serious question. “Shiroe-chi isn’t best at expression his emotions, nya. But he is a good kid that wants to keep everyone safe, nya. He might think that if you suddenly took a day off from the shop, it might have some people suspect something is off, nya.”

“Oh.” Mikie fell silent. She wasn’t convinced by the conversation and still had her doubts. Sure, she had heard of the Debauchery Tea Party, they were known for some amazing feats in the Yamato server. But worldwide they were considered a small group; there were more amazing big name guilds and party in the American and European servers. Besides real life wasn’t like a game, and this life was real now. From experience anything that can go wrong usually do, that’s just Murphy’s Law.

“We used the method you suggested, nya.” Nyanta broke the tense silence. 

“Huh?” _What were we talking about again?_

“The ice cream making method, nya. It does take longer but the product is much better just as you said, nya.”

“Oh, yea. Glad it worked out pretty well for you guys. I have been thinking about other methods that could work too actually.”

“I’m glad you are constantly thinking of us, nya. You will have to come and try the new product. We have different flavors like strawberry, banana, and matcha, nya.”

“Why do you call me Miss Mikie when you add chii or nyaan to everyone else’s name in the guild? What do you have against me Sir Cat?”

“I mean no offense, I only think Miss Mikie just suits you better, nya.”

There was the sound of a metal trashcan crashing onto the stone street from behind. Mikie and Nyanta turned around in high alert in case of meeting troublemakers from Hamelin. 

“Owwwie.” A female voice broke the night. 

Instead of seeing figures of shady men from Hamelin, they saw a familiar short figured, bright haired girl on the ground, holding her right knee.

“Serara?”

“Miss Serara, nya?”

Mikie and Nyanta asked at the same time. Nyanta went to help the fallen girl up. 

“Hm… G-good evening. S-surprising to see you two out here.” The girl blushed heavily at contact with Nyanta’s hand. “I-I am not following you or anything.” She added on quickly. 

 _Right._ Mikie smiled. It was cute to see the young girl having a giant crush on the older man. Mikie don’t know how or if it will work out between the two, but it was still cute how obvious Serara was and how clueless Nyanta seemed to Serara’s feelings. Nyanta could be choosing to ignore the girl’s feelings or he could be a complete dense idiot when it came to love. Between the star-eyed stares Serara gave Nyanta and cute glares she gave in her direction, Mikie had a good idea that Serara saw her as a threat or a love rival. 

“Guess it’s time for me to take myself out of the equation.” Mikie announced and tossed the green coat to its owner.

“Where are you going Miss Mikie, nya?” Nyanta asked urgently as Mikie walked pass him. He quickly followed after Mikie.

“I will be fine. I’m going straight back to the guildhall. Man I’m feeling tired from working all of a sudden. I think it’s a good time for me to go to bed.” Mikie faked an exaggerated yawn.

“I shall accompany you back then, nya”

“Don’t bother, I’m heading straight back. It’s not that far. But, why don’t you finish the walk with Serara here. Night guys.” Mikie waved at the two. She felt proud that created an opportunity to help the odd couple along.

“Eh?” Serara looked like a doe in headlights.

“Good luck kid.” Mikie whispered as she walked passed the young girl.

“E-EH!” It seem Serara finally just realized the situation.

On the way back to the guildhall, Mikie skipped and humming Moonlight Legend, the Sailor Moon opening song. It just seemed appropriate to hum the theme song while walking under the bright full moon the night before war. When Mikie got back to her temporary sleeping space at the guildhall, she couldn’t sleep. After countless turning and tossing, she ended up not getting a wink of sleep.

 

In the morning, Mikie got ready for work earlier than usual. She wondered the halls looking for the rest of her guild members. She couldn’t find assassin and guardian; the chefs in the kitchen told the two had already set out preparing for their missions. But she did catch a glimpse of the other two as they were heading out. As she racing down the guildhall to catch Shiroe, Nyanta, Maryele, Henrietta, and Serara getting ready to head to big meeting.

“Wait! Shiroe! Nyanta!”

“Mikie?” Shiroe and Nyanta turn to the voice.

“You are up early Miss Mikie, nya”

“Best of luck.” Mikie gave the two a meaningful look. “I trust in you and your plans Shiroe. Please make them into a reality. Nyanta please do whatever you can to support him.”

“Thank you, Mikie. We will sure to do our best.” Shiroe looked slightly shocked before smiling warmly at Mikie. For the while they had spent, Mikie always had remained aloof and cautious of them. She also had displayed much displeasure with Shiroe’s decision of keeping her at the shop when everyone else was doing something different. This was the first time she have opened up and expressed trust in them.

“I will do everything in my power, nya.” Nyanta smiled and bowed perfectly like a perfectly trained butler.

Mikie saw the five of them off before going heading out to the shops with the rest of the Crescent Moon Alliance members. Time was not a friend today. Even though Mikie was busy with customers all day, the day dragged on. She unconsciously found herself looking at the top of the guild building time after time.

 

Nyanta and Shiroe were in a meeting with eleven other guild masters, hoping to create a council to bring some form of governing organization and law to Akiba. Akatsuki and Naotsugu were busy carrying out rescuing beginners from the Hamelin guild with Crescent Moon’s attack leader, Shouryuu. To Mikie, her role at the shop seems very underwhelming. But when she really thought about it, she isn’t very good at tactics so she wouldn’t be any help to Shiroe and Nyanta. Her class wasn’t the stealthiest or sturdiest, so she wouldn’t be much help to Akatsuki and Naotsugu. She hated feeling so useless.

The meeting wasn’t going well it seemed. One of the guilds walked out of the meeting. Mikie was feeling a headache and bile coming up into her throat from worrying so much.

“Everything will be okay.” Isami, a girl from the West Wind Brigade guild, touched Mikie on the elbow and gave her a soft smile. “Why don’t you take a break for now?”

Mikie have gotten to know some of the girls from the famous harem guild in Akiba in the last couple of days, the West Wind Brigade. In her mind when she heard of her mind was the guild was going to be a group of fan-crazed girls who all worshipped their guild master like girls worship male teen celebrities. However, most everyone she met was fairly normal and nice. Most of the girls seemed to just enjoy talking and hanging around Souji, their supreme male leader, rather being crazy hormonal teenagers. With that said, there were one or two older females that were a bit extreme. One of them hissed at her when she shook hands with Soujirou when formally meeting him in person.

 

When the sun finally started to set, the major guild masters all walked of the guildhall after coming into an agreement of sorts. Guild members of the guild master present at the meeting already knew something was happening today and were already crowding near the guildhall. Most of them didn’t know the exact details, but the shroud of mystery generated buzz and attracted the attention of everyone in Akiba, near and far.

One by one the guild masters lined up on the steps of guildhall. As if everyone knew something important was about to happen, everyone in the area stopped what he or she was doing and gathered in front of the guildhall. Mikie, the members of Crescent Moon Alliance, and West Wind Brigade closed up shop and were also mixed in the crowd.

Mikie noticed Shiroe decided to not stand with them and was nowhere to be seen. And one by one, each of the guild masters made various announcements of things that were agreed upon in their meeting. First was the formation of a governing body called The Round Table Council. From there announcement ranged from a set of a legal system, better treatment of People of the Land, tax, secret to cooking in this world, research on the fairy rings, and expedition into new zones. Mikie was very shocked about research on fairy rings. If it goes well, she might have a way home soon.

“Isn’t that good news Miss Mikie, nya?” Nyanta somehow found Mikie in the crowd and made his way to her with graceful steps. He stood by her casually, also listening to the announcements.

“Did you guys pulled some strings during the meeting to get them to research it?” Mikie wondered out loud.

“I wonder, nya.” The cat was not about to tell and only smiled.

“I can go home soon.” The realization hit like a brick. It was bittersweet. She could go back to find Larry, but she would have to leave her new friends. They have nothing but helpful to her. They took her into their group without question and took care of her even though it wasn’t their obligation. She hasn’t done anything to thank them and now she might be leaving again.

“Now, now. Don’t count you chickens before they hatch, nya.” Nyanta put a hand on her head gently. “It will be a while before they can get a team together to study the rings and get results, nya. It looks like you will be stuck with Log Horizon for a while, nya.”

“That isn’t a bad thing, Sir Cat.” Mikie felt relieved to not have to make the decision to leave now. After knowing, living, and working with them for over a month, for the better or worse, she had become attached to her new friends. She had even warmed up to this teasing cat standing next to her; although his delicious cooking definitely had helped with the process along. “Will you please stop treating me like a child?” Mikie puffed and slapped his hand off her head. “I will have you know I’m the second oldest in the guild.”

“Nya.” The sage cat gave his usual ambiguous answer with a smile on his lips.


	10. A Place in the World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another slow chapter, but hope someone will enjoy it. :)

The night when the Round Table was formed, there was a great party. Mikie celebrated, laughed and enjoyed the night away with the rest of the Log Horizon members. The next few days were busy for them. There were 30 something beginners rescued from the Hamelin guild that needed to places to stay. About half of those kids wanted to join the Crescent Moon Alliance. Space was already scarce at the guild’s current guildhall, there was no room for Log Horizon members to impose anymore. Shiroe’s short term plans had come to an end, so the partnership between Log Horizon and Crescent Moon Alliance also dissolved. There was no more reason for Log Horizon members to keep on stay in Crescent Moon Alliance’s hall.

The five members of Log Horizon decided the morning after the party that it was time for them to find their own place in the Akiba and mark it as their own. That’s why the five of them were walking down the streets of Akiba looking at different buildings and prices to purchase them. They were looking for their own their own guildhall. Until they do, they would stay in hotel rooms so they don’t have to impose on their friends at Crescent Moon Alliance anymore.

 

“Shiroe, how about this one!” Naotsugu pointed to an extravagant, western mansion in good condition. The price of the building was 4 million. The gold they have between all the members was only about 300 thousands, if they sold some items maybe they can have a bit more. But 4 million was definitely not possible and selling in the currently market was difficult too. No one really knows how much to price items for.

“My lord, this one.” Akatsuki pointed a very traditional dojo looking building in fair condition. Some of the door and window might have to be replaced, but the building looked it was still in good shape. Price on this building was still 1 million gold.

“It looks like all of the buildings here are 1 million and above. I don’t think we can afford any of these in the central location.” Mikie said after looking at all the building based on their price. “Sorry guys.” She apologized quickly after she noticed Naotsugu and Akatsuki’s depressed expressions.

“I agree with Miss Mikie, nya.” The sage cat nodded his head in agreement.

“Maybe we need to find something in a different zone.” Shiroe was mostly thinking out loud as he examined the buildings too. “Just like real estate in real life, maybe the building in a more desirable location like here would cost more than something at edge of town. Buildings that are in good condition would cost more that those in a bad condition.”

“If money is really a problem right now, I can try to sell my Holy Elemental Staff, limited event items, and equipment that I was saving when I get to level 90. It should fetch at least a few hundred thousand all together. I don’t think I will be reaching level 90 anytime soon either.” Mikie offered.

Mikie was not rich in the game by all means, but she did know good people who gave her high-level mage class gears that they couldn’t sell off before they quit the game forever. The Holy Elemental Staff was a Phantasmal-class, which was the highest tier item. It was a birthday gift from her good friends in the North America had gotten for her after they did raid after raid to find it. It would be heart wrenching to part with it, but desperate time calls for desperate needs.

“No. The market is not stable enough to sell anything like that. You might be forced to low ball some of the items you have. Selling a Phantasmal-class is almost unheard of. Some of your other items are Artifact-class, and those are considered very rare. Not able to wear it now doesn’t mean you won’t be able to wear them later. We can’t be sure how long we will be stuck here. You should keep them for your own safety in the future.” Shiroe said while pushing up his glasses like a true mastermind. He heard Mikie sighed behind him. Getting a bit flustered, he afraid he said something to offend her. He quickly added with a gentle smile, “I really appreciate you offering though, but I don’t think it will be necessary. I’m sure we will find something that will be in our budget.”

“Shiroe is right. High-level gears will be hard to find now and price will rise in time. More people will try to hit level 90 and beyond. It will be harder to buy it back later when you need it. You should save them for yourself now.” Naotsugu pitched in too.

“I agree with My Lord.” Akatsuki also joined in and added on, "And the Pervert for once."

“What was that, Shrimp?”

“I’m not a shrimp, Pervert.”

“We will help you level up so you can use them, nya.” Nyanta smiled at how lively the group was becoming.

“Yes. Once everything calms down, we will aim to break through to level 91.” Shiroe assured Mikie with a kind smile.

“Thanks guys.” Mikie grinned like an idiot. She felt warm inside from what everyone had said. The thought of not parting with the greatest gift she received from her friends from her home server, and maybe finally using them, fill her to the brim with happiness. She couldn’t stop tears from forming in her eyes and a big smile stretching across her face at this moment.

 

After having no luck all morning, the group of five sat under the biggest tree in Akiba to eat lunch. Everything they looked at was outside of their price range. They even looked at some of the more run down buildings and the cost was still over 500 thousands to purchase and will cost more to maintain later on.

Shiroe pulled out a map of Akiba and marked the prices of the areas they already seen.

“What’s the plan, Debauchery Tea Party’s straightest?” Naotsugu plopped down to Shiroe’s right to look at the map too.

“We have looked at the buildings around the center already.” Shiroe made invisible circle over the map. “The price do seem to get lower the farther away from the center. If we pick a zone outside of the central zone, the prices in theory should drop dramatically.”

 

The guild decided to look north. The east and west zones had too much foot traffic, the southern districts was already taken over by bigger builds to use for various reasons like storage, housing, and side branches to the main base. In the north border of the central zone, the group wondered through the different buildings. There were some in good conditions for 250 to 300 thousands, but this would mean they would burn most of their gold on buying the building.

Then Shiroe saved the day by noticed something interesting. “It seems like we can buy abandon buildings that were just part of the background before. They are only 75 thousand.”

The group went in to a building that seemed to be an abandoned mall. The building must have been deemed unusable because a huge tree grew vertically through the six-story building, destroying the elevator and any stairs that existed before.

“It is creepy here, My Lord.” Akatsuki jumped closer to Shiroe and accidentally brushed her hand against his when a bird took off when the group pushed the door. Akatsuki unconsciously rubbed where they had touched and was now blushing red like a tomato. But Shiroe didn’t seem to notice at all.

Mikie sighed, what’s up with these obvious but unrequited feels. She was starting to feel stressed out from how clueless all the guys around her were. She was starting to see why Naotsugu called Shiroe a closet pervert.  

“It is all a process, nya.” Nyanta must have noticed what Mikie was thinking. He winked at Mikie when she looked to him, and made a “shh” gesture with his left index finger. It was a little ironic to Mikie that he seemed keen to the budding feelings and relationships between his teammate, but still clueless to Serara’s feeling towards him. Or maybe he did? Oh, he would be wonderful when playing poker.

“You are actually scared of something, Shrimp?” Naotsugu teased.

“Shut up, Pervert.”

“If you guys don’t like it, we can look at a different one.” Shiroe quickly said. “I just thought it was cheap and was big enough for us and all of our functions. For 75 thousand, that will leave us at a very good financial spot. We would have quite a bit left over to fix it up.” Shiroe was starting to babble.

“I think it’s charming, after we clean up a bit.” Mikie stepped the old dusty building with a light skips. Mikie noticed the young man tended to babble that when he was feeling uncomfortable and decided to help the young man out. Yes, she was indeed older than Shiroe, Akatuski, and Naotsugu after taking to chatty guardian of the group. She could see Shiroe’s eyes light up with joy a little from her words.

“We even have a natural sky light.” Naotsugu laughed heartily.

“I will follow My Lord anywhere.” Akatsuki just couldn’t say no to Shiroe it seemed like.

“I think this will make a great porch, nya. It seemed like we have came to a decision guild master, nya?” Nyanta smiled at Shiroe. The other three also looked at Shiroe expectedly. 

All the members contributed 15 thousand each to pay towards the building. They spend the rest of the afternoon exploring the building, making plans on where things would go. However it was too late to start any cleaning since it’s already late afternoon. They decided to head back to their inn and start the next day.

 

During the next week, the city boomed. There were more adventurers opening up food shop that had taste. Even some people of the land made changes to their food items to have taste. Because there was more supply for food, a lot of resources prices naturally dropped. Hunting for food and resources, and sending out expedition teams to different zones gave adventures “jobs”. Slowly, the city began to buzz with life. With PK banned and Hamelin guild kicked out of the city, the atmosphere of the city was improving day by day.

In the week of fixing up their guildhall, Log Horizon had many interesting visitors. The first was also the most unexpected. Mikie was sweeping the entrance the first day of cleaning when a man in black armors and wine colored hair showed up with a group of summoners. The man demanded to see the Black Heart Glasses. Mikie was so intimidated by the giant guardian’s aura that she could only nod and led the group inside.

“Hey, Villain in Glasses. This place is pretty big. It’s perfect. Let my summoners train here.” Mikie checked the man’s info through the status screen. This was Isaac, guild master of the Black Sword Knight, one of the councils of the Round Table.

Before anyone could stop the man, the summoners by his side conjured Undine of Flowing Water in different costumes and flooded the whole building. Naotsugu and Mikie who couldn’t hold their ground got thrown out of the windows.

“Owww, what in the world was that?” Mikie was a bit dazed from getting thrown out of the building. She lay in the middle of the now wet pavement, willing the dizziness to go away before getting up from the fall that she just took.

“Are you okay?” A voice that sounded awfully like that rude black knight, Isaac, said. A black glove covered hand made itself into her vision. Mikie grabbed onto the offering hand and was pulled back to her feet. Being pulled up so quite caused a wave of dizziness to hit and she lost her balance. Thankfully a second hand steadied her around her lower back. “Whoa there. Take it easy there little lady.”

Mikie took a good look at the rough looking warrior adventurer. He looked all high and mighty, but he seemed to have lost some of his intimidating aura when he was marching up to the guild. There might be even a small speck of concern in his eyes right now. Hm, she definitely have seen this type of man before. 

“Did you fall on you head?” Isaac was growing wary of Mikie’s unblinking goldfish stare. He steadied her on her feet and made she wasn’t going to fall before taking a few steps back. “Answer me if you are not mute, woman.” He said with frustration.

“I can speak just fine, thanks. And the name is Mikie, not woman or little lady.” With one more analytical look at the guardian, Mikie might have figured Isaac out. “You are a big softy deep down. Thanks for the help big guy.” Mikie patted the man on his shoulder armor before heading back inside her guild.

“W-wh-what? I’m not softy!” Isaac yelled after her. Mikie smirked at his flustered reaction. Yup, he was definitely the type of guy who put on a hard exterior but had a soft, squishy loving interior. Men, they all want face in public. It wasn’t that hard to figure out.

“Black Sword Knights are not bad guys, nya.” Mikie heard Nyanta say when she and Naotsugu met back with rest of the group back inside.

“No, they are not.” Mikie agreed with a knowing smile.

The second day, Shiroe invited Michitaka, guild master of the production guild: Oceanic Systems, to look at what work would be needed to make the building habitable. Shiroe requested stairs made to connect the first and second floors, and patch up any holes on walls and floors of the first two levels and leaks in the roof.  Michitaka took up this task personally.

After the stairs were build, Souji and Nazuna of West Wind Brigade stopped by to see how the cleaning process was going and brought fruit wine made by one of their brewer as an early housewarming gift. And a day later, Charasin from 8 th District Shopping Center stopped in to talk Round Table business with Shiroe.

Then on moving day, Marynee and Henrietta from Crescent Moon Alliance stopped by with Japanese food they bought on their way here to see how everything was going. Henrietta even bought a special Japanese outfit for Akatsuki, but it didn’t seem like the small assassin girl was too please with it. Later, Nyanta explained it was a children’s yukata that Henrietta put Akatsuki into. Mikie now could understand why the girl was upset, but she was also jealous that the younger girl could wear cute clothing. She loved girly, frilly clothing, but had been told by her parents to stop dressing in children’s clothing that no longer suit her age.

The final surprise of the day was later at night. Nyanta brought back two new faces that Mikie have never seen when he came back from grocery shopping for curry night. Shiroe, Akatsuki, and Naotsugu’s faces lit up with recognition and approached the two small kids. Mikie copied their actions even though she still didn’t recognize the two.

“I saw them wandering around the building when I returned, so I brought them up, nya” Nyanta explained.

“Touya, Minori?” Shiroe called out. Ah, these were the twins that Shiroe had wanted to rescue from Hamelin; at least that’s what Nyanta told her. Touya was the samurai and Minori was the kannagi. “Are the two of you alright? I heard Crescent Moon Alliance was moving today.”

“…Eh” Touya stuttered and looked at his sister.

“Ano…Ano…” Minori was flushed around the cheeks and was afraid to look up from her feet.

“Um…well Niichan, we came to join your guild.” The brother tried to steady his voice and said with a determined look on his face.

“We’d like to be Shiroe-san’s students.” The sister seemed to have found her voice too after hearing her brother. “The past week, the Crescent Moon Alliance has been taking good care of us, but we haven’t joined them!”

“We have made it this far because of what you taught us! If Niichan started a guild, we also want to be in it. I may be weak now, but I will become strong.” Touya announced to the group.

“M-me too! I may slow you down, but I decided not to use this as an excuse anymore! Please let us join you.” Minori added.

“Well…uh…”It was Shiroe’s turned to stutter. Everyone looked to Shiroe for his decision, but Mikie already know what he would do. Who can say no to these cute faces.

“Shiroe-chi, don’t daze off now. You are the guild master, nya” Nyanta encouraged in his own sage cat way.

A thought hit Shiroe and his facial expression relaxed into a soft smile. “Okay, Log Horizon welcomes you, Touya and Minori.  Your first mission as new members is to eat curry with us. Got it?”

The twins face lit up. “Yes!” “Niichan!”

Just like that Log Horizon’s member increased by two. After the curry was done, all the guild members sat under the night sky outside and enjoyed eating and getting to know each other together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still haven't written a new chapter since the pre-written chapters (17 or18?) I wrote month ago. Just haven't had any motivation unfortunately still. Also, life has been hectic, might be jobless soon... so joining the dreadful job hunt again.


	11. Breaking the Routines

After Log Horizon members officially moved into their new home, everyone in the guild quickly set into the same daily routines.

7:00am Mikie and Nyanta would be the first ones to get ready for the day. They would greet each other in the hallway and head to the kitchen together. 

7:30am Nyanta would be done cooking breakfast. Mikie would have already set the table. Shiroe would sit himself at the table.

7:40am breakfast would start to get cold and Mikie would knock on Minori’s and Touya’s doors and yell up the stairs on the top of her lungs for Akatuski and Naotsugu to get up for breakfast. Threatening if they don’t get to the table in 5 minutes, they would not get any food. 

7:45am the four sleepy heads with bed hair would slowly make their way down to the table and start eating.

8:30am breakfast would be done and table cleared. Mikie and Nyanta would be in the kitchen scrubbing dishes, pots and pans. Shiroe would go up to his office reading or working on Round Table official documents for the rest of the day. Akatsuki and Naotsugu would go out with Minori and Touya to train on the outskirts of town.

From morning and until dinnertime, Mikie would sweep, wipe, and wash a different shared living space in the guild each day, and sometimes clean one of the member’s rooms if she had permission during breakfast.

In the early afternoons, Mikie would accompany Nyanta to town when he goes to shop. When he shopped, Mikie would wonder around the streets to see what new shop or invention had popped up on the market. She would often buy some type of new snack item to bring home to share.

4:30pm Mikie would meet up with Nyanta at a designated place in town to head home together. 

5:00pm the two would get home and Nyanta would start the food prep. The two would usually chat about all the new things in town while the chef cooked.

5:30pm the four out hunting monsters would return covered in dirty, mud, and other filth. Mikie would tell them to get clean up for dinner and set the table.

6:00pm Nyanta would serve dinner. Everyone, minus Shiroe, would be at the table ready to eat. Mikie would have to go to Shiroe’s office and drag the young man from his desk to eat. The guild would chat about anything interesting that had happened that day during dinner.

6:45pm Nyanta would bring out green tea, and Mikie would bring out the treats she bought in town to share for dessert.

7:00pm dinner table would be cleared. Nyanta and Mikie would be washing dishes again. Everyone else would go to their room and do their own thing until the next morning when everything repeats again.

After washing the dishes, Mikie would usually shower for the day and then dry her hair on the balcony attached to her bedroom. Sometimes she ate ice cream there under the star too after showering. When she was finally in bed ready to turn in for the day, she would check her friend list to see if Larry and Patty’s names were lit up.

 

The weather felt like summer; the night air is cool but not chilly. One thing Mikie loved about this world was that there were no mosquitoes. She hated dealing with mosquito bites because she would have extreme reaction to them. One bite anywhere on her would cause a giant swelling that won’t go down at for a week or longer. At one point, she got bitten on her ankle and her people have commented that she looked like she had broken her ankle or had feet of two different people. Mosquitos were the reason that she can’t enjoy camping or viewing the moon and stars outside in her world.

In Elder Tale world, it was different. Mikie can enjoy hours each night watching the sun and moon switch places on her balcony without having to worry about mosquitoes. There were no bright streetlights that lit up the city and pollute the night sky. The moon in this world was a beauty to be held. It looked brighter, bigger, and closer. The stars were more visible and shone brightly. As she observed the sky, drying her hair, or eating ice cream, she would unknowing be humming some kind of tune under her breath. Also unknowing to her, her voice carried into the surrounding areas with the winds, like the rooms next door – if they had their balcony doors or windows open, or the street below her balcony.

Within in a week of living in this pace, Mikie earned two nicknames. The first one was Mom. Touya first called her that jokingly one day because she was nagging him about eating a more balanced meal and somehow the rest of the guild members younger than her started to call her that too. The second was The Humming Beauty of Log Horizon. She received this nickname from the Landers and other Adventures that walk pass her balcony at night. Some nights there would be a few people that sit under her balcony just to listen to her songs. Mikie’s only problem with this nickname was, calling her a beauty was a big stretch; her looks are average at best.

She did notice that the time they stayed with Crescent Moon Alliance, she didn’t hear voices nearly as often. But they have moved to the outer city, where there were more trees and nature, the voices could be heard more often. She talked to Shiroe about it in confidence because hearing voices other people can’t, that how a crazy person would talk. But Shiroe listened to her with an open mind, he suggested that maybe because of her class and subclass combination, she was more in tune with the spirits of the land or nature so that’s she can hear these voices and why the voices seemed to react to her and her sing. That seemed like a logical explanation, Mikie was now excited to know what kind of things she could do with this ‘special ability’.

 

The first week flew by for some of the guild members, but for Mikie it passed so slowly that she thought she would die if she kept living at the same pace in this world. So after dinner one night, she plopped herself in a chair in Shiroe’s office to meet with him.

“What brings you here?” Shiroe was surprised to see her in his office since since she wasn’t here to get him to come out of this room to take a break or to remind him to eat. He had also gotten used to her humming some kind of tune on the balcony around this time of the day.

“Shiroe, I want to go monster hunting, train, go raid a dungeon or something! I’m sick of doing nothing.” Mikie pleaded to the younger man with a pout. “No, cleaning and shopping doesn’t count as doing something. We can probably hire a Lander to do those things. I need more meaning than this in my life, or I will go crazy. I want to level up or something. Please give me a quest or something to do?”

Shiroe analyzed the woman through his lenses. He pursed his lips in thoughts. She have a point, he was busy dealing with things with the city and the Round Table, Nyanta was busy discovering new recipes, and the rest of the members were out training the new members. Mikie was the only one left with nothing to do. They had taken her granted to clean up the guild after them.

“Is it okay if I give you an answer tomorrow night?” Shiroe had an idea that might work, but he did require some assistant from another guild.

“Okay. Tomorrow. You promise?” Mikie held out her pinky and had a childish pout on her lips.

“Yes, I pinky promise.” Shiroe smiled gently and wrapped his pinky around hers. He knew Mikie was the second oldest member after Nyanta, but their personalities were really different. Nyanta gave people the feeling of a wise dependent older man, but Mikie have an air of maturity around her, but can act in childish way that reminded him of Mary-nee’s tantrums sometimes. When anyone confronts her about that, she would reply with ‘I’m just still young at heart’.

 

Everyone in the guild noticed something was different in the morning morning. Mikie seemed to be in a super good mood. She had a little skip to her steps when she walked, and she was humming while she worked. This had everyone curious and looked to Shiroe for information.

“It seems that Miss Mikie is in a fine mood today, nya.” Nyanta observed.

“What’s the occasion?” Naotsugu asked Shiroe.

“Is something happening, My Lord?” Akatsuki’s interested was peaked too.

“I’m hoping I won’t let her own.” And that’s all Shiroe said to the others before excusing himself from the table and retreating back to his office. Without a real explanation, the others only could guess what was going on with Mikie.

“Do you think she found a boyfriend?” Touya was the first one to start guessing. "Have you seen the number of men under her balcony at night?"

“Touya!” Minori frowned at her brother’s suggestion. 

“No, she was already engaged before coming to this world.” Akatsuki shot the idea down quickly.

“Feelings can be a fickle thing.” Naotsugu, despite knowing the events that lead Mikie to the Japanese server, agreed with his warrior student in training.

“I do not take Miss Mikie to be a fickle lady, nya.” Nyanta also joined in the conversation. 

“My Lord seems to know something that he isn’t telling us.” 

“I'm still betting money on she have a secret boyfr-” Before Naotsugu could finish, he was sent flying by the assassin’s knee.

 

The day went on like normal, nothing different happened. When the four members returned from their normal training ground they found an unlikely visitor in their guild arguing with Shiroe.

“We don’t take anyone under level 85, it’s our policy and that’s final.” The four found Isaac, the warrior dressed in black, and another male member of the Black Sword Knights sat their living room.

“I am not asking you have her join your guild, just one of your expeditions to a dungeon that is suitable for her level.” Shiroe was starting to get a headache from trying to convenience the stubborn natured warrior. The conversation had been going in circles for a while now. He have already asked Krusty to see if he would be able to help, but it seemed like the guild master D.D.D was busy and could not be bothered with this favor. The West Wind Brigade was busy with establishing a brewery shop in town and did not plan to have expeditions or any party raid planned in the near future. The whole Silver Swords guild already left Akiba shortly after the Round Table was established. That’s how Shiroe got stuck with this situation with the Black Sword Knights.

“Having a female could boost the men’s morals. Most of our female members left the guild. The men are complaining. Morals are low.” The sorcerer from Black Sword Knights piped up.

“Let them complain. She is too low leveled and will slow us down. We only will take people level 85 and up in the guild and for expeditions. We don’t need women in the guild, they just slow us down.” Isaac was getting tired from this conversation.

While the guild masters talked, Mikie came back with Nyanta from their daily shopping trip and noticed the four watching from the side.

“What’s going on?” Whatever they were talking about, Mikie did catch the part where the black armored guardian said women were weaker than men. That just didn’t sit well with Mikie at all.

“Well look who is a rude and misogynist man, no wonder all the females are leaving your guild.” She said loudly, announcing her presence clear in the room. Things were turning out to be worse than Shiroe had expected. After Mikie joined in, Shiroe had a strong urge to just stand up and go to his room.

“What was that woman?” Isaac growled at her. He stood up and slammed his hands loudly onto the poor coffee table, obviously offended.

“Mikie, misogynist is a bit of a strong word.” Shiroe tried to calm Isaac and Mikie down before a fight broke out. 

“Shiroe don’t defend him. He underestimates women and sees us as inferiors. He is a woman hating loser.” Sometimes, like now, Mikie really just doesn’t have a filter. Isaac and Mikie were locked in glaring battle and a tense silence settled itself in the room.

“Wow, that’s the Humming Beauty! She looks so much prettier up close. She is feisty too!” The sorcerer from the Black Sword Knights was the first one to say anything after it got awkward in the room. He stood in front of Mikie in a few big strides. He lifts one of her hands to his lips, kissed her on the knuckles, and flashed her a charming smile. “Hi, I’m Don. Second in command of the Black Sword Knights guild. It’s so lovely to be in your presence.” He bows dramatically.

Just like that the tension in the room was broken. Maybe that’s why Isaac brought the guy in the first place, to resolve any issues with his light heartiness. “Isaac, we have to let her to go to raid a dungeon with us. So many people would jump at the opportunity. I mean she is the famed Humming Beauty of Akiba.”

“When did I become the Humming Beauty of Akiba? Can people stop giving me nicknames without my permission?” Her question went unanswered. 

“We can’t guarantee her safety.” Isaac sank back down to the sofa and gave out a heavy sigh. It was really hard to change Don’s mind when he became like this. Isaac felt a headache coming on.

“I can pull my own weight in the party.” Mikie interrupted.

“See?” Don added with a grin to Isaac.

“I meant we can’t guarantee her safety when she is with a mostly male group.” Isaac rolled his eyes at his second in command. Mikie shuttered at that a little. She did understand the fact that some men were pigs.

“Oh don’t you worry. I already have an idea on how to get them to leave her alone. They will only admire her from afar.” Don winked at Mikie to reassure her there will be no trouble from the guys from the guild.

Isaac sighed loudly, rubbing his forhead. “Alright, we have a group going to the Crystal Cave dungeon, a level 80 dungeon, in two days to train. One of the spot is yours if you want to go.”

Mikie looked to Shiroe, who just smiled and nodded. Then she looked to the rest of the guild member. Naotsugu gave her a big smile and thumbs up. Nyanta and Akatsuki both nodded in her direction.

“Yes, I want to go.” With her guild supporting her, Mikie made up her mind fast.

“Pack up and meet the group at 7AM at the main city entrance in two days. They leave at 7:15AM sharp. You will be left behind if you are not on time.” Isaac got up from his seat and left the building with his cape fluttering behind him. Don followed suit after waving exciting at the Log Horizon members. 

As everyone saw the Black Sword Knights off, Touya whispers to his sister, “So do you think Isaac or Don is Mikie’s secret boyfriend?”


	12. Nicknames

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A more lighthearted chapter. Enjoy :)

On the promised day, all the Log Horizon members got up super early to see Mikie off with the members of Black Sword Knights guild. Nyanta had already check and rechecked her magic bag to make sure she had enough food and supply to last her the month long journey. Naotsugu and Akatsuki both gave her some high quality potions just in case thing goes array. Shiroe gave her advices and tips on the monsters, dungeon, and battle formations. Touya and Minori made her a good luck charm from things they found from their training sessions and tried to gave her some of their EXP potions that they have been saving up in the last couple of days for her trip.

“No, those potions are for you guys. You guys should use them like how it is intended.” Mikie pushed the EXP potions back into the twins’ hands and ruffled the two’s hair affectionately. “I do appreciate the thought. I will keep this charm with me on this trip. I am feeling lucky already. 

“Are you ready?” Shiroe asked one last time before they left the guild building.

“Yes.” Mikie’s face was beaming with exciting. She was feeling a little nervous, but mostly excited for the journey. 

 

When the arrived at the gate, they were surprised to see a decent group of adventurers had gathered so early in the morning. The people there weren’t all from the Black Swords Knight either. The Log Horizon members started to wonder what was causing all the commotions as they approached the meeting place. As they got closer, they saw Isaac and Don standing with the party of adventurers that were out heading today from their guild.

“Isaac never personally sees off his group for a low level dungeon raid.”

“I wonder what’s going on?” 

“I bet something big is happening.”

Mikie heard excited murmurs as she tried to squeeze through the crowd to meet up with the group.

“Excuse me. Coming through. I need to get through please.” Mikie said as she pushed herself through the crowd to get to the front. “So what’s going on?” Mikie asked Isaac and Don when she got through the crowd.

Isaac muttered something under his breath that no one could hear, and Don elbowed his fearless leader in the side with a smile. With a sigh, Isaac walked up to Mikie rather begrudgingly. The crowd had gone silent, but the excitement was still in the air. All eyes were on the two of them now. Mikie was feeling very awkward and shy now so many people are watching. Isaac took some sort of metal off his armor and pin it to the front of Mikie’s cloak for the world to see. Everyone in the crowd began to whisper as to what was going on. At this point, Mikie was really confused and would like to know what the man was planning too.

“That is Isaac’s Metal of Valor. That have plus a whole bunch of stats on everything.” Someone from the Black Sword Knights from whispered.

“Listen here!” Isaac wrapped an arm around Mikie’s shoulder all of a sudden and turns towards the party going to Crystal Cave and the crowd. “She is joining you guys for this journey. All of you men behave yourself. I will be in constant contact with her through at this journey. If I hear one problem, you lot will have to deal with me personally when you get back.” Then the big man pulled Mikie aside to talk in private.

“Eh?!” Everyone in the crowd and even the members of Black Sword Knights exclaimed in surprised. Chatter ran like a wild fire in the crowd. Everyone was talking about what had happened and what was the relationship between Isaac and Mike.

“So, her secret boyfriend is Isaac! I didn’t see that coming.” Touya unintentionally said that a tad too loud. But people like gossips, so the unfounded rumor of Mikie and Isaac being a couple dispersed through the crowd and eventually the whole city.  

“Touya!” Minori put a hand over her brother’s mouth. But the words already left and could not be taken back. And that’s how Mikie got another nickname in the city: The Secret Lover of the Leader of the Black Sword Knights.

 

“What was that all about?” Mikie wrestled herself out of Isaac’s hold once they had more privacy to talk. She did not like to be man handled this way. She was not pleased. They just gave everyone the wrong idea back there. 

“It wasn’t my idea, believe me. It was Don’s idea to keep you save on the journey, you would not believe how horny some of the guys are.” Isaac sat on a rock and messaged his forehead. It was too early into the day for a headache.

“I’m sure it could have been handled differently.” Mikie puffed, pouted a little, and glared at the man. She was so excited for the journey, but now it had already turned into a giant mess even before she left town.

“It was the easiest way to get the point across. Add me to your friend list. Let me know if there are any problems in the group. I will handle it.” Isaac said in a matter-of-fact with a hint of defeated tone. Mikie noticed how tired the usual rude but charismatic, proud man looked.

“You are a more awesome guy than I give you credit for.” Mikie tried to make the man feel better since she felt bad how much trouble she caused for everyone by wanting to go on a trip on a whim.

“Praise me more.” Isaac put on an arrogant smirk and hopped to his feet.  

“Jeez, I take all the good things I said about you back.” Mikie rolled her eyes in a playful way. “Come on, let’s get out there before more rumors about what we were doing back here arises.”

 

After Mikie and Isaac added each other to their friend list, the two headed back to where the dreadful crowd was. 

“They are back from making out!” Someone yelled, and people in the crowd ate that up too. Mikie just gave Isaac an ‘I blame you for this’ glare, and the said man just shrugged. Some people wolf whistled. Others scouted, “Good work man!” or “She is a keeper!”

“This is a Black Sword Knight party send off. Get out of here the rest of you.” Isaac roared at the crowd and send out a deadly glare. Slowly non-relevant people started to distance themselves from the main group, but they still stayed within hearing distance to catch any other juicy gossip.

“Are you going to be okay?” Shiroe approached Mikie once the crowd thinned out a little.

“I am, but I don’t think my good name will be.” Mikie laughed lightheartedly. The damage was done; rumors would die off eventually. It helped that she will be gone for a month to avoid the questions and eyes of everyone in Akiba.

“If the journey becomes too much, do not hesitate to contact us Miss Mikie, nya. We will fly to your side and pick you up, nya.” Spoke the true werecat gentleman. Mikie was glad that Nyanta just gave her an out anytime she needs it.

“I will be home before you know it. Stronger too.” Mikie hugged each of the guild members before heading off with the party in waiting.

“Good luck!” The Log Horizon members shouted as Mikie and the party of Black Sword Members rode into the distance on horseback.

 

The journey to the Crystal Caves was a long one by horseback and feet. It would be much faster flying but Mikie was the only one with a flying mount so that wouldn’t have any benefit for the group of nine. In this group there were three seasoned level 90 adventures, a samurai, a kannagi, and an assassin, to help the group get to their destination without any problems. The rest of the group consisted of a level 85 assassin, level 85 cleric, level 85 bard, level 86 monk, and a level 87 guardian. The party was mostly male, but the level 90 kannagi was female. Everyone thought Mikie was a too low leveled at 75 to join them, but since their leader has spoken, no one could say out loud how they really felt about the situation.

Unknowing to the rest of the group, even though she was at least 10 levels lower than some of them, she could do just as damage as a level 85 or higher summoner due to the upgraded or above average gears she have. Although, her accuracy could still use some work; that wasn’t level related anymore. The Metal of Valor, a common level 70 accessory equipment, which Isaac loaned her also increased her status even more. She could tell he had spent a lot of time in the game carefully upgrading it to the current godly item.

In the Elder Tale game, you only could begin to hit your targets if you were 10 levels under the monster. You could only gain experience from killing monsters no more than 5 levels under your level. The research guild also found that the higher-level monsters seem to be more intelligent than lower level ones, and boss monsters seem to be smarter than the grunts. Thus, the higher level a player gets in this game turned reality world, the harder it is to level up and the more dangerous it gets to do so. 

Despite the previous trauma that led Mikie to the Akiba, she was still feeling excited for this dungeon raid. With Larry and Patty, they were unprepared for what had happened. But this time around, this group was prepared to what they were going to face along the way and in the dungeon. Since there was no permanent death for adventures in this world, this took away a lot of fear people had. But this didn’t mean Mikie would be careless and die a preventable death.

The first night, it was easy to tell that the group was biased towards her. During the travel, they chatted among themselves, but they didn’t include or invite Mikie in any of their conversation. They all ate dinner in a group and left no space for Mikie to join them. Mikie didn’t mind, she understood they had their reasons. She sat somewhere quite and decided to call Shiroe to let him know everything was okay.

“How was the first day?” Shiroe picked up her telepathy call super fast. He must have been waiting for her report. 

“I think it went pretty well, we didn’t really encounter any monsters yet since we are still within the lower level zones. We are about 50 km out already. We had to travel some distance on foot since the ground was too uneven for the horses.”

“How are they treating you?” 

“As well as they could. I’m sure they are all intimated by me because of what happened, but they seem like good people.”

“Chief was wondering where do you usually put the little dessert plates, he couldn’t seem to find them.”

“Did he check the cabinet with the tea set?”

“I will have to ask him if he did or not. If he can’t still can’t find it, I will have him contact you directly. And like Chief said, if you run into any major problems. We will fly to you to help.” Shiroe said before ending the call.

After eating her food and with nothing to do, Mikie started to hum different melodies from back home, and listen to the voices in the forest that hummed and sang along. Mikie have started to get comfortable with hearing them after her insightful conversation with Shiroe. The voices they have been harmless so far and it helps kept her from feeling too lonely.

 

So the journey continued on like that for four more days. She telepathy called Shiroe every other night to let the guild know everything was still going well. Nyanta called about every other day asking her where things were stored at and chat about recipes he was working on. Isaac even called her one night out of the blue. He called to see why she hasn’t called him at all.

The short conversation went something like, “Why haven’t you called me yet, Woman.”

“The name is Mikie and I haven’t had any need to call you for anything.”

“Well…call if you need anything.”

“Okay, hanging up now. Night.”

“Night.” Isaac repeated but then realized Mikie had already hung up.

 

Now they were further out from the city, they were starting to meet some level 50 to level 60 range monsters. The party would kill them off before Mikie had a chance to get involved. This was an issue since it was like they were operating like a party of five. They don’t realize how much easier it would be with the additional support and buffs from her. And if any monster attacked her, the group just left her to fend for herself. It wasn’t hard to see that the group had isolated her and wanted her to die without dirtying their own hands to get rid of her.

That plan didn’t work out so well for the members of Black Sword Knights. In the afternoon, they group was going to set up camp for the day by the river, but they encountered a nest of Lapis Flies ranging from level 73 to 89 instead. Usually this type of monster was known for running away. But the group stepped too close to their nest and queen. The insects were now buzzing with aggression, ready to attack at the first noise.

Like usual, Mikie’s party mates and the three level 90 adventurers rushed into battle without her. Even with the slight level advantage the group had, the Lapis Flies, giant rainbow winged bugs with sharp claws and stinger, severely outnumber the group. It also didn’t help that the bugs have high evasiveness. Even the bard’s speed debuffs on the monsters only helped a little. The chaos of battle caused the members of the Black Sword Knights to fall out of formation. At this rate, they might be die before they could reach the dungeon.

Mikie applied some real life logic to this situation. If the bugs were behaving like this to protect the queen and the next like wasps in the real world, how should one handle this problem? Well bugs become less active and have a slower response rate when it is cold, you would destroy the nest in a different manners of means like drowning them in a bucket of water or spray the whole thing down with chemicals. So first thing is first, stop them in their tracks. 

“Come Fay and Sylph. Sylph, use [Fairy Dance] and [Wind Blessing]. Freeze those bugs with [Freezing Winds], Fay.” Mikie called upon her ice type and wind type fairy-type summons. Fay was not the strongest ice summon in the class but, she can really brew up an ice storm for an AOE (area of effect) attack. And it seemed like her logic worked. All the giant bugs started to slow down from the temperature drop and maintain attitude in the air. Wind’s Blessing was a permanent buff that increased the party’s defense and magic defense as long as Sylph was summoned. The skill had a long duration, but also a long cast time and recast time. [Fairy Dance] on the other hand would only last 10 minutes but had a shorter cast time and recast time. During the 10 minutes all of the stats of the adventures will be increased. The two buffs opened an opportunity for the adventurers to regroup and start to kill the bugs left and right. But as they killed the bugs, more would just come out of the nest to take its place.

In the game, the Lapis Flies were also weak against fire attribute types of attacks. So the next thing to do is to burn the next with the strongest fire attack she knows. “Pheonix, burn down that giant paper mache they call a nest.” Mikie called on a third summon. She was starting to feel mentally drained from keeping three summons materialized at the same time. In the game, a summoner at her level would be able to keep up to three summons in battle. However, in this real world simulation, Mikie’s limit so far was two. She had to dismiss Sylph because it was taxing on her mind to have three summons out at the same time. Maybe with more training later, she could work her way up to having three.

Pheonix, her strongest summon, did not disappoint. It set its feathers burning red hot while in midair and then dove into the bug nest like a meteor. In seconds the whole next was ablaze, dozens of Lapis Flies flew out of the next while still burning. Some of them managed to put out the fire, but they still took a bad hit. Other couldn’t stop the burning and dropped dead soon after. The queen was screeching in pain while trying to escape the burning nest.

Mikie repeated the same set of fire spells to keeping hacking away at the queen’s HP little by little strategically while Phoenix kept the rest of the minion bugs away from his summoner. She casted her spell in a way that she could attack continuously, and she never had to wait on any cool downs to end. Back in her active days, she had a really good teacher. She smiled at the memories. Her companions finally obtained control over their battles too after the nest was destroyed.

The queen, furious at the person that destroyed her home and children, made a made dash for Mikie while she was still on fire. The Lapis Fly Queen wanted revenge if it is the last thing she did.

“[Anchor Howl]!” The guardian of the group banged on his shield to attract the attention of empty all around them. The queen halted in her flight. She couldn’t ignore the skill used by the tank of the group. The monk and assassin jump into the front line to start doing massive damage on area boss. The cleric and bard started to cast spells on Mikie to heal her HP, recover MP, and give her stat boosts.

“Get back everyone. Hey guardian, use [Castle of Stone]. Finish it off with [Meteor Dive], Phoenix.” 

“Everyone close by get behind me! [Castle of Stone]!” The guardian yelled to the front line attackers to get behind his shield while the others quickly ran out of Phoenix attack range. The flaming bird took off to the sky before diving into the monster in a ball of fire and burning into a crisp. While Phoenix was doing his thing, Mikie also took the opportunity to cast the strongest fire magic she knew too. Together, Mikie and Phoenix burned the Queen and the surrounding forest to a crisp. There was a soft ‘ding’, Mikie noticed that she had leveled up from killing the mob of monster and the queen.

“Is everyone alive?” Mikie asked jokingly after the battle icon disappeared when all the enemies in the area had been defeated. 

“Yeah.” The group seemed to stare at her dumbfounded; they couldn’t believe the lowest level member of the group, from a different guild, saved their asses.

“You were…amazing!” The monk said.

“Yea! Using blizzard on them to slow them down was some quick thinking.” The guardian praised. Then all of the Black Sword Knight members seemed to open up to her almost immediately, despite the fact that they have already traveled together for five days now. 

“You hit way above your level.” The level 90 assassin sounded shocked.

“No wonder you are boss’s girlfriend. I can totally see why you guys are together now.” The level 90 samurai said. 

“You are probably his good luck charm or, oh, his Goddess of Victory!” The cleric said over excitedly.

“Or crossed star lovers like Romeo and Juliet because you two are in different guild. Oh, the forbidden love.” The bard over romanticized the situation.

Mikie could feel she was going to hear more nicknames when she gets back Akiba. But it was also hilarious how people were reacting to the whole situation. Once Larry showed up, all these misunderstandings would clear up, hopefully.

“Yea, about that. We are not an item at all.” Mikie told them the truth, not like they would believe her anyways after the whole show Isaac just put on before they left.

“No worries, we heard from the kid from your guild that you guys’ relationship is suppose to be a secret.” The kannagi winked her in direction.

“The kid?” Mikie raised an eyebrow. She had a pretty good idea who might have spread this rumor even without knowing. She was definitely not going to buy anymore dessert for him once she gets back.

“Yea, the kid samurai. I think he called you guys secret lovers!” The kannagi blushes when she said that out loud. Then she squealed at whatever mental image she had of Isaac and Her, and covered her now even redder cheeks. The rest of the party had their own image in their mind and their jaws dropped.

“Well, let’s just keep that between the nine of us here okay?” Mikie had to contain the damage while she could.

“Oh honey, I think it’s too late for that. All of Akiba probably knows by now. So your secret is kind of out of the bag.”

Fun, but hopefully a month away from the city will help the rumors to die down.

“Let’s start camp here since it is getting late.” Mikie redirected the conversation to the bug corpses littered around the battlefield. “We can collect the rainbow wings from the Lapis Flies until sun sets, the production guild probably can make use of those to craft something out of it.”

“Another great idea from the boss’s wife.” The samurai gave her a big thumb up for her idea. Mikie felt the group was not going to let the topic drop anytime soon. The group all started cutting off the rainbow wings and other usable parts of the bugs that were still in good condition.

“You have to join us for dinner tonight. We want to know how you guys met and everything!” The monk said and the rest of group looked at her with expectant eyes.

“Err…I guess. But I swear there is nothing interesting to tell.” Mikie thought about their first meeting. How he had flushed her out of the second floor window the day they met. “But if you guys want really to know.”

“Oh my goodness. Yes!” All of the Black Sword Knights yelled at the same time.

Well Mikie guess at least now she was more part the group and received some respect from the members. That’s one problem down and only ninety-nine more to solve.


	13. Crystal Cave Dungeon Adventure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well more like chapter 12.5. Please excuse the language usage. But enjoy anyways =)

The group reached the entrance of the Crystal Cave dungeon late afternoon the day after the encounter with the swarm of Lapis Flies. The place was lovely and seemed untouched by human. The Crystal Cave was located behind a waterfall that was surrounded by a tranquil forest. The nearby forest grew thick and tall, but trees did avoid growing around the pond and stream that the waterfall filled. In the summer heat, the Crystal Cave seemed like it was steaming due to the temperature difference in the cave and the outside. White water vapor can be seem constantly drifting towards to amber sky. 

“We shall set up camp here for the night. You guys will head in early tomorrow.” The level 90 samurai declared. “The three of us that are level 90 will be camped out here until the end of the given time. You guys can also rest at the camp if you guys need to came out of the dungeon for any reason.” 

For the rest of the afternoon and early evening, the group worked together setting up camp, gathering firewood, and cooking. Rest of the night, the party of six chatted about their strategy, and battle formations. The dungeon split off into an easy side (left) and a hard mode side (right). The group decided to head left first just to get used to the types of monster and maybe even level up a bit before going to the higher-level side of the dungeon.

It was not surprising that Mikie was put in the rear group with the cleric and bard to provide additional heals, buffs and debuffs to the attack group. The cleric would act as the main healer, and the bard as the main buffer and debuffer. Mikie was to concentrate on attacking from the rear for additional damaging but also helped out with support tasks from time to time as needed. The guardian would act as the tank for the group to pull agro from monsters and bosses. The monk and assassin would be the main damage dealers. After they talked more about the known details of the dungeon, the group went to their assigned tents to get some sleep in before tomorrow.

 

After a light breakfast consistent of a simple rice porridge, pickled vegetable and grilled fish. The party of six headed up the slippery rocks behind the waterfall. Mikie shivered along the rest of the group when they arrived. It was a bit chilly just to stand outside of the mouth of the Crystal Cave. Mikie decided it would a good idea to change out her witch cloak to a heavier magic cloak and into a pair of winter boots. While it is warmer, the heavier cloak and boots did decrease her speed just by a little but made up in boosting her magic attack. The rest of the party also put on some warmer gears before heading in.

On the inside of the cave, ice covered the cave and formed icicles hanging from the ceiling. Some of the icicle was so tall it touched both the ceiling and floor. Ice here didn’t seem to melt despite the warm temperature outside the cave. There was also an unknown source of light that lit up the cave that made all the ice sparkle brightly. Everyone expect Mikie seemed to be hesitant and nervous to be attempting the dungeon raid. Mikie was ecstatic. She looked at the surrounding in awe. She could feel excitement bubbling from within like the first time she ever got hooked to this world from behind a screen.

“Our intel says we would encounter some level 80 Icicle Turtles before hitting the fork.” The guardian, also the party leader, reminded the rest of the group as they walked in the cave in a formation. The guardian walked in the front, the monk and Mikie on the flank, the cleric in the middle, and bard at the rear. The assassin would use his skills to hide himself and scout ahead. “Speak up immediately if you see any monster.”

“What should we be looking for?” The Bard asked from the rear.

“Anything that moves.”

“I think some of the ice spikes on the floor are moving. They are heading towards us!” The samurai yelled from the right. The battle icon in their minds triggered. It was hard for the group to count the number of enemies because the ice on the shell of the turtles helped them blend into the environment really well. It was hard to tell what was just ice and what was monsters. To make things worse, the monsters moved fairly quickly compared to their animal counterparts.

“If we can’t tell what is what, just attack everything!” The bard yelled from the rear. He seemed to have happy trigger finger because he let out a sound wave with his small harp bow, which attacked multiple monsters.

“No. I haven’t established argo yet!” The guardian warned too late. The turtles’ attentions were all set on bard. Multiple chunks of ice seemed to be rushing towards him now. 

“What are we doing?” The samurai yelled in frustration.

“What should I do?” The cleric was freaking out too.

 

For a bunch of experienced players that worked fairly well in the forest, their teamwork was non-existent here. But it could also due to the pressure of facing a dungeon for the first time in this new world or facing much strong monsters. It was just sad to watch. At this rate, this might turn into an all out battle for survival. That would not end well for anyone.

“Are you s**ting me right now? Get the f**k together guys! Aren’t you all f**k high leveled and from the famous Black Sword Knights?” Mikie, who had been quiet to let the other take control of the situation, couldn’t hold in her disgust anymore. They were disorganized as a group of newbies who never played the game. She decided to take charge and let her mouth run because no one else was stepping up at this moment. “This is no different than any other battles. Calmed the f**k down already. Guardian re-establish argo with Anchor Howl! Cleric heal him! Assassin and monk attack and push back anything that comes near him. Godd**m, bard hold off on your attacks. Are you trying to get us f**king killed?”

The group was stunned at Mikie’s words. For a while they couldn’t believe the words flying out of the woman’s mouth. They didn’t take her to be one to be swearing like that. From the short time they spend together, she looked, sounded, and acted like a normal polite woman. But now it’s like she changed into someone completely different. A burning fire was lit behind her eyes; her expression unrecognizable; her words beyond ugly.

“What you little f**kers looking at me for? Look where the enemies are!” Yup, something within Mikie completely snapped and she was now a completely person. Under Mikie’s strict instructions and her summons’ help, the group regrouped and survived.

The guardian established argo over and over again with different taunt skills. The assassin and monk would keep the monster at bay from the rest of the group with their full on attacks. When all the turtles were distracted, Mikie, the cleric, and the bard time step away from the fray. From the side, the cleric would concentrate keeping the guardian’s HP up with Heal and other spells. The bard was to decrease the mob’s speed with his Ballad of the Gullible Snail. Mikie summoned Slyph to further buff the group’s status, Unicorn to help heal the attackers, and Salamander to cast fire spells from afar.

In this battle Mikie didn’t say much more after the group started working better. She did take note that everyone was randomly spamming attacks and spells. Then they would run into their cool down and couldn’t use another skill until the cool downs were over. Mikie’s lips pursed into a tight line as she thought, _attacking together doesn’t mean you are working together_. But still, she didn’t say anything, for now she would just observe and keep monitoring the all the members’ attacks and cool downs. She also did notice it was easier for her to summon two support and one attack summon than two attack and one support.

“Salamander, take down your cold blooded cousins with Lava Burst.” Another reason why Mikie chose to summon Salamander over the other fire attribute summon was because she thought it would be funny to fight turtle to turtle. With one last fiery AOE attack that tossed chucks of burning lava to the enemies, all the ice turtle were defeated.

“Woot!”

“Yay!”

The members of Black Sword Knights shouted in excitement. They didn’t expect to win at all after the rocky start. Somehow they pulled it off and everyone survived. 

“What kind of s**t show was that!” Mikie stopped the immature cheering of her teammates.

The group of men looked at each other and gulped loudly. They had hoped Mikie’s personality would change back after the fighting.

“How many of you have been to a dungeon before?” Mikie asked in a tired voice. All five of them raised their hands. “Well then, I expected way more of everyone! Every single one of you needs to stop mass spamming your attacks and spells. You all kept on hitting your cool downs too soon, and waste a lot of HP and MP. Pace yourselves and coordinate your attack with other so you can constantly attack as a group without gaps.”

 

After the initial battle, the group fought more groups of Icicle Turtles. Mikie did see small improvements. The group of attackers paced their attacks and started to watch each other’s attack pattern. Mikie and the bard in the rear also coordinated their attacks to minimize the attack gaps between cool downs of the attacks up front and helped out with crowd control. It was hard for everyone to grasp the attack rhythm at first. But Mikie, who had gotten some training from someone she used to play with, got the rhythm down first. To help everyone else out, Mikie would have to constantly yell for someone to either slow down or pick up the pace. They were all veterans of the Elder World to be this high level. In a just a few battles, they were able to feel the rhythm that was needed to keep up the constant stream of attack.

At first, the group felt displeased being schooled by a female who was not in their guild and lower level than they are. But after a few battles, they are starting to see all the improvements and don’t run into the cool down problems as often. This was a new way to fight monsters for the group. Sure they always coordinated their attacks when playing Elder Tale, but finding a rhythm to keep up the attacks was something new for the Black Sword Knights.

“Mikie, where did you learn to fight like that?” The monk asked. 

“Oh, someone in my previous guild drilled the rhythm thing into me when I used to be active. I’m still not as good as him when finding a rhythm that works for different groups and battles. If I was better, we could probably defeat those monsters at least a quarter of the time faster. But it is now something can’t forget now because I have done so much.”

“May we ask who you trained under?” The assassin asked politely.

Mikie responded with a name that no one had heard in years. The groups face pales a little bit. If she knew ‘him’ then she had to be in ‘that’ guild. To make sure, the assassin asked her. Even though they knew what her answer was going to be, they hoped otherwise. The group’s face stiffens as she said the name of ‘that’ infamous guild. They were a group of addicts and psychos in the North American server who achieved incredible heights in the game. After seeing the other side of Mikie, the group could one hundred percent believe Mikie had been one of ‘them’.

“What was your relationship to ‘that’ guy to have him teach you?” The bard asked the other question on everyone’s mind.

“Our characters were married to each other in the game. I guess I’m his in game wifey.”

 All of the men in the group had the same thought, _we are totally f**ked._

 

Once the group hit the fork, the group headed left to the easier route. In this route, they slaughtered through groups of Ice Ogres and Frost Golems fairly easily while following Mikie’s strict directions. After 8 hours of battling, the group was half way through the dungeon and decided it would be for the best to finish the rest of the dungeon tomorrow. 

When they headed back the camp, the three camp leaders were surprised to learn how far the group got in a day. They were paled when they learned from the other five about Mikie’s background in Elder Tale in the North American Server.

“Oh come on guys, it’s not that big of a deal.” Mikie waved the comments off casually when asked about it.

 

During the second day, there weren’t any different monsters that they haven’t encountered in the first day. If anything, the group felt like they were more comfortable with Mikie’s style of group fighting now. Before they knew it, they were at the doors before the final boss. Mikie and a few of the party members leveled up and the rest were going to level up soon. At this point the group had been in the dungeon for almost 8 hours. They didn’t expect to get to the end so soon. They thought it would have taken them another whole day to fight here.

“How about we call it day and finish up the boss tomorrow?” The cleric said as he sat on a rock to recover his MP.

“No, we are already here at the White Witch. We can just do another run through the dungeon tomorrow.” Mikie said sternly. “We can only enter the dungeon once in a day, it will be a waste of a day to come back just to fight her tomorrow.”

“We are tired.”

“You can head back after we finish this.”

“How are you not tired.”

“The dead can rest and sleep. 

“You are a slave driver.”

“Say what you want, I don’t care.” 

It seemed like Mikie’s mind of been had up and there is no changing it. The members felt embarrassed that they were complaining about fatigue and sleep when the female of the group was not. They felt embarrassed that the lowest level of the group had more drive than them.

“Alright lets go then.” The guardian was dragging his feet a little, but at the same time he can’t complain too much either. He just leveled up under Mikie’s harsh commands. She really took tanking to a whole knew level. He had never been so sore and tired during the time they have been stuck in this world. He had gone on other party raids with members of his guild to train, but this dungeon training was at least a hundred times more intense than anything he had gone through. Even Isaac wasn’t as harsh when compared to this she-demon in front of him right now. 

“Good, go initiate the battle then, my meat shield.” Mikie had a wicked smile on that send chills down everyone’s spine. Right now, the group wasn’t sure if the White Witch or Mikie was scarier.

After an hour of intense battle with the White Witch and a lot of shouting from Mikie, the witch was always dead. Mikie had instructed the group to stand in a two-person triangle formation. The guardian and assassin would be at 12 o’clock to keep the witch distracted. Mikie and the bard were a group standing at 4 o’clock, the monk and cleric were at 8 o’clock. In this attack pattern, the assassin, monk, bard and Mikie’s Ifrit kept knocked the witch around with attacks with a push back or stun effect. Push back and stun effects helped to reduce the large amount of damage that the Boss monster caused. The White Witch must recover from push back or stun before she can attack again. 

The Witch’s main attacks were AOE attacks. The party’s plan was to interrupt her casting for heavy hitting AOE attacks that would dangerous for the mage and healer classes in the party. One AOE attack from the White Witch could drop their HP by 90% or even wipe out those classes out in one hit. But not only does the AOE attacks causes large amount of damage, a lot of the AOE attacks can also inflict frostbite on the adventures who are hit. This would cause their HP to drop a little every second until the status disappears after 10-20 seconds on its own, or removed by potion or a healing skill. Thus, if the frostbite was not taken care of right away, it could add up to a significant amount of damage and kill one of them.

This was a great plan, but the only flaw was their level difference between them and the White Witch. The greater the level difference, the higher the resistant the monster would have to push back and stun. Thus once in a while, the group would still take an AOE attack hit. But when the White Witch uses her AOE attack, she used flashy movements and magic circle that made her intentions very noticeable. During the dungeon Boss’s display of fancy movements and light show, the cleric, bard and Mikie would all shatter out of the AOE attack range or behind the guardian’s Castle of Stone to avoid the mass amount of damage. But overall, the rate of AOE attacks had greatly reduced by Mikie’s strategy. Just like that, the group knocked off the majority of her health without taking on too many hits.

Once the witch’s help got to the red zone, she did become enraged and summoned a snowstorm and snowman minions that got everyone out of formation. The snowstorm caused small amount of drops in each player’s HP. The only way to stop this effect was to kill the witch off as quickly as possible. But with a few stun inducing skills and all out attacks, the group subdued the witch and her minions fairly fast. At this point, everyone had leveled up once. Mikie was close to leveling up again and she could learn some new tricks at level 77; she couldn’t wait.

“Think we can do another run today? The monsters in front might have respawned already.” Mikie grinned.

“NO!” The group yelled unanimously. Mikie pouted cutely, but no one was fooled by any of her cuteness at this point. They have already seen the side of her covered in black.

 

After a few more days of re-running Crystal Cave in the easy route, Mikie wanted to drag the party down the hard path a week and half later. With the experience curve, leveling up was getting too slow for Mikie’s liking. Mikie was especially excited when the camp leaders disclosed that there was a hidden boss, The Crystal Dragon, down the hard path. This dragon wasn’t available in the North America server before she quit. The name it self made Mikie drool and want to tame it as a new summon.

“No, I don’t think the six of you can handle the harder side yet.” The level 90 samurai shot Mikie’s idea down immediately when she broke it up. The other five in Mikie’s party secretly thanked their camp leader while eating their dinner.

“I guess I agree with you there, it might be a bit difficult.” Mikie said after thought about it more.

The high level samurai raised an eyebrow at Mikie’s choice of words. She said difficult, but not impossible. He was starting to wonder what kind of insane method she used to get her party through the dungeon so fast. Finishing the easy side in two days was no small feat. This dungeon usually takes at least 3-4 days to finish. In all honesty, the three camp leaders expected this group to finish closer to 4-5 days on their first run because this group of adventurers never have worked together in this dungeon before.

“If there are 9 of us, there will be no issues!” Mikie announced loudly for everyone to hear.

“WHAT?” Everyone at the camp yelled at the girl’s absurdness.

 

After lots of persuasion and nagging from Mikie’s part, the camp leaders reluctantly joined them in the dungeon. The three level 90 player started to see why the party would come back exhausted every single day so far.

“Stop slacking you f**kers or do you want to be dead meat!” Mikie snapped the three out of their thoughts. They thought the others had exaggerated how bad Mikie was, but nothing could have prepared them for this.

Mikie made the group go through the dungeon repeatedly so she could meet the Crystal Dragon and attempt to tame it after defeating it. Just like that, the group lost track of time. It was finally time for them to return to Akiba when Mikie obtained a crystal dragon egg from the hidden boss of the dungeon.  



	14. At Least One of Us is in High Spirits

A month past since the dungeon raid party left for the Crystal Caves. The group had been in constant contact with at least someone until the third day the group entered the dungeons. There was no such thing in this world as bad telepathy call connection. No one in the group was picking up for some reason. Isaac and Shiroe’s concern was growing bigger day by day. No one in the group had died since they had not revived in town; unless their revival point got reset to somewhere else somehow. There was even talks about a search and rescue mission in the Round Table. But organizing a party like that would take time, and at the moment they can’t spare any manpower right now because of the summer training camp and Eastal’s invitation.

Shiroe could see the log horizon members worrying for their companion in their actions. Naotsugu, Akatsuki, Minori, and Touya started to train in areas near the main entrance. They hoped to run into Mikie and the party on their way back. Nyanta seems to sigh more than he admits to. The sage cat often had mixed up sugar and salt while cooking. Everyone was too distracted to notice or complain about it. Even Shiroe find himself having a hard time concentrating on his work and looking out his office window more.

After two more weeks, the missing party was finally making their way back the Akiba. Akatsuki landed on Shiroe’s open window to let him know the party was sighted in the near by forest and arriving soon. Naotsugu and the twins were already waiting at the main entrance, and someone in the Black Knight Swords also went to let their guild know. 

Soon about two hundred people gathered at the main entrance, with Isaac and all the members of Log Horizon standing in the front of the crowd. They saw someone on horseback running towards them in full speed while the rest of the party seemed to drag behind.

“Shiroe~ Nyanta~ Everyone~!” Mikie on horseback waved with way too much energy while hugging something sparkly in the other arm. How she still managed to stay on her horse was a mystery. It looked like she was in really high spirit while the other eight people in the party looked drained of all energy.

What the hell happened? That was the question that everyone asked himself or herself. 

“Are you okay?” Shiroe approached the overly excited girl even though she looked better than ever. 

“Yes!” Mikie gleamed. It was almost too bright to even look at her face.

“What happened! I want a full report.” Isaac scowled at his underlings. He was not happy to be kept waiting or worrying. 

“She happened.” The bard of the group looked nauseous. He placed a hand over his mouth like he was preventing herself from throwing up. “She kept yelling and swearing. Oh the swearing! I can still hear all the ugly words. So foul! My innocent ears can never unhear them!”

“What?” Isaac raised an eyebrow at the comment. 

“She is a slave driver! She is even worse than you.” The cleric looked his spirit might leave his body any moment.

“We can see why you guys are totally a match, boss.” The samurai said with black circles under his eyes and gave a tired thumbs up.

“She used my body like a meat shield. I feel so used and violated!” The guardian hugged himself dramatically and looked like he could break down crying any moment.

“She is a complete monster.” The kannagi was being carried on her horse like a bag potatoes. It didn’t look comfortable at all. No one was sure why she was riding in that position, but no one wanted to ask either. 

“She wouldn’t let us die. I wish she just let us die and all of our suffering would have been shortened.” The monk repeated like a broken record.

“She was part of 'that’ guild in North America. She knew and was trained by ‘that’ guy. She was ‘his’ unknown waifu!” The level 90 assassin looked up from the group, completely traumatized. “They were known to be super wild when it came to partying and raiding. She didn’t seem like one of them at all. But we were deceived! Deceived I say!”

 

Some members of the Black Sword Knights rushed to their soulless guild mates to help them demount their horses. Other members surrounded the Log Horizon guild with hostility. 

“What did you do to them!? What was your guild affiliation. Who was he?” Isaac was furious and grabbed Mikie harshly by the shoulders to the point it will bruise later. He didn’t know what had happened, but it seemed like it had everything to do with Mikie. He would not allow any harm come to anyone in his guild.

“The hidden boss was a Crystal Dragon. The moment I saw it, I knew I want it as new Summon.” Mikie had a crazed smile on her face and started to blabber. She didn’t even care about the fingers that dug into her shoulder. “We just went to beat the lower level dungeon a few times just to level up to prepare ourselves for the hidden boss. It didn’t show up a few times we went. Then we defeated the dragon another few times, but it won’t join my group. Finally the last time we went, it gave me one of her eggs when I tried to tame her. At least we got some really nice items from all the times we reached the end of the dungeon. I had to let Blobby the Slime go, but it was worth it!” A level 85 summoner only could only keep 9 summons at a time. It won’t be until she hits level 90 when she will obtain three more slots to keep more summons her in services.

“A few times?” Isaac asked in alarm. He knew the dungeon very well since he spend a lot of time himself raiding it with his guild way back. The Crystal Cave dungeon would take a party of six of their level at least 3-5 days to clear if they went the easy level route and maybe about a week to clear for the intermediate level. To trigger the Crystal Dragon you need to take the hard route and have a half-alv in the party. But at the level the six of them were at, it would be near impossible to defeat the dragon boss. From the looks like how tired and traumatized everyone was, she must have dragged the level 90 adventurers that were suppose to sit out into the whole mess too. Isaac wondered how many times she made the group go through the dungeon with her in the time they were gone. “Who did you know?! Answer me woman!”

“Mikie, what was your previous guild?” Shiroe’s interest was peaked. This was the first time her previous guild affiliation was mentioned and it seemed like it might had been a fairly known guild in the North America server. 

“I was in OverKill and trained by the guild master, TheMaster. But that was years ago, the guild disbanded years ago when all my friends quit, and TheMaster quit around that time too.” Mikie said without a care in the world. 

OverKill and TheMaster were names that Shiroe hadn’t heard for a many years now. Like Mikie said, the guild had disbanded years ago, but the reason was unknown until today. Years ago, OverKill was a famous North American group that was known for being obsessive with grinding at high level maps, dungeons, and party raids for experience, rare item drops, or just for fun. All of their members were known to spend excessively amount of time online farming exp or items. They were a group of Elder Tale addicts on a whole different level.

The guild master was probably the most addicted one of them all. He, at one point held, the unofficial record for the most number of dungeons conquered before he quit. He still held the unofficial records for some of the fastest time for clearing a number of dungeons. Since Elder Tales doesn’t actually keep track of these things, it was all documented on MeTube videos or Kiwipedia Pages. In the European and North American servers, where the game was more competitive, many considered TheMaster as a pro and even a legend. From what Shiroe could gather, it seemed like she was also once trained and married to TheMaster in the game. From first impression, Shiroe couldn’t tell Mikie came from a complex gaming background. For the first time in a while, Shiroe felt intrigued by someone.

 

“And you were married to TheMaster?” 

“Yes, we got married in game when character marriage just came out on a new patch, and company made an event to try to get more people to buy the package. There was an event for married characters only quests to earn special rare items, and there was a special bonus if one of the characters was a Diva or something like that. He made me change my subclass because of that. It was a marriage of convenience and he paid for the whole thing. So why not? I don’t equip the ring anymore since it doesn’t give me any additional effects and the visual effect doesn’t active anymore since he quit permanently. But here is the ring if you want to look at it.” Mikie took a ring out from her magic bag casually.

Shiroe took the ring carefully into his hands and examined it. The ring was a simple gold band with a small pink stone set in the center. On the inside of the band ‘TheMaster’ was engraved. After Shiroe confirmed the information, he handed the ring back to Mikie.

“Oh, if you think I was bad. You should have played and partied with him. He was a real slave drive!” Mikie then started to babble about some of the hardship she had to endure during her time with him.

“Is she broken?” Touya asked his training mentors in a quite voice.

“She came back a completely different person.” Minori voiced her concern too. This was not the same person she knew when she first joined Log Horizon. Going to the dungeon seemed to change Mikie’s personality completely. 

“She just needs good food and rest, nya. She will be back in no time, nya.” Nyanta put a hand on each of the twin’s shoulder to help them to feel a little better.

 

“Just get her out of my sight.” Isaac gave up interrogating Mikie for more information. It was pointless. But whatever she did, however inhuman and cruel to level up the group, worked very well. The five adventure who left around level 85 to 87 were now either 89 or 90. Even the three level 90 adventures were almost broken through to level 91 under Mikie’s insane regimen. Mikie was the most impressive one though; she had leveled up more than ten times. She was now sitting at an impressive level 85 and almost to level 86. He can’t really complain about the results.

“Wait.” Mikie stopped Isaac leaving. She unhooked his Metal of Valor from the front of her cloak. “I don't need this anymore now I’m back. Consider us offically broken up.” She announced loudly for everyone to hear, grinning ear to ear. This should nip the rumors about Isaac and her as a couple at the bud. “Oh and here. Take this [Rainbow Crystal Necklace] equipment as a collateral damage for the break up.” She puts both items in the warrior’s gloved hand. 

Instead of feeling furious, Isaac felt amused. No one had the guts to treat him in such a way in real life or in the game. He wasn’t sure if Mikie was all right in the head or she just simply didn’t care about how much influence he held in Akiba. He felt intrigued by this odd woman. He was proud to say in real life, he was a chick magnet. He chose to stay a bachelor and have a gamer’s life style instead. He found it rather boring to have women would throw themselves at his feet left and right because of his good looks, fat wallet, big bank account, or work.

Isaac pocketed his metal but placed the necklace around Mikie’s neck. He pulled her close by the chin with their noses almost touching. “We are not broken up until I say so.” He said for everyone to hear before letting go. He turned to leave with the rest of his guild. He smirks cockily; he felt like he was back in control and on top of the world again. The look at her face was priceless too. It felt good to get the last laugh.

“Ugh asshole! We are not even a couple to begin with!” Mikie yelled after the jerk knight. Isaac just gave her a casual wave without even looking at her direction 

 

“Anyways I have so much to talk to you guys about. “Mikie turned towards to her friends. It was only when her stomach growled loudly did she remember that she only had one meal so far and it was already early in the night.

“Well, why don’t we all talk about your adventures at dinner, nya? We are having curry tonight.” Nyanta chuckled and Mikie agreed wholeheartedly. Nyanta’s cooking was definitely one of the things she missed on her journey. His famous curry was a real treat. 

“Is that a real dragon egg?” The egg with sparkly crystal shell fascinated Shiroe, Naotsugu, Akatsuki and the twins.

“As real as it can be.” Mikie smiled proudly and held out the egg for the group. “Feel the egg.”

Everyone was amazed at the feeling of the egg. It felt alive. There were vibrations of a steady strong heartbeat resounding from within.

“I think I’m going to name it Miir when it hatches.”

“What does that mean?” Minori asked fascinated.

“One of the meanings of the name is Guardian.” Mikie vaguely remember that from somewhere. 

“Do you think it will be a girl or boy?” Touya asked.

“I don’t know how to sex a dragon egg I’m afraid.” Mikie laughed lightheartedly.


	15. Summer Camp

A few days had passed since Mikie got back. Mikie noticed a lot of things had changed since she was gone. Everyone seemed to be busy for the summer training camp for beginners and the conference with the King of Eastal coming up soon. Shiroe seemed to be holed up in his office more than usual. The twins were now confident enough to train on their own. Naotsugu and Sir Cat seemed to be in and out of the building many times during the day. Also Serara had taken over her normal cleaning routines. She was sweeping the hallway outside of the kitchen area one day when Serara showed up with a mop and bucket in hand.

“I asked Nyanta if I could help with the cleaning when you were gone. I hope that’s alright.” Serara said shyly.

“I don’t want to keep troubling you. I can clean the place now I’m back.”

“No, it is alright. I don’t mind at all. You have to take care of yourself and the baby anyways. And I like cleaning here actually.” The young girl blushed, her mind obviously wondered off to somewhere else already.

_Do you like cleaning here or like seeing someone here._ Mikie thought to herself. And the baby in question was not an actual human baby. It was the roughly football sized dragon egg that Mikie brought back with her. She couldn’t put the egg in her magic bag because the magic bag slowed down time inside, so trying to hatch the dragon egg that way would take forever. Just holding it in her arms was really troublesome for daily tasks. Minori, being a sweet heart, made Mikie a baby/egg harness made out of leather so that she could strap the egg in front of her person. It was so simple and genius at the same time. Mikie praised the girl days for it. But now, she did feel like a pregnant woman by wear the egg almost everywhere. It doesn’t help that everyone started to treat her like one too.

While it was cute that Serara is so obviously in love with the old cat, but having Serara here so often gave Mikie fewer things to do around the guild. Serara didn’t come to clean daily, but the girl does such a thorough job that it leaves Mikie with little to do. Three days of the week when she was here, Serara fought her over cleaning, setting the table, washing dishes, and etc. Mikie learned to gave up fighting over cleaning duty with Serara very quickly. She decided she might as well do some productive solo training with her summons, master new skills, and get use to her baby bump.

 

One of the new skills she had gotten was called soul possession. The skill allowed her to possess the bodies of her summons and use their skills at her will as long as the beast and herself do not run out of HP and MP. But the down side of the skill was it leaves her body in a vulnerable state. In real battle situation, the skill won’t be useful as it is in practice. 

Another skill that she picked up was called scapegoat. It was to summon a body double to take attention off her and take damage for her while it is active. Since summoner had low HP, this skill did come in handy to confuse enemies in battles and reduce damage.

 She will need to master and explain how all the summoners skill worked if she was to teach beginner summoners at summer camp. Mikie learned to use most of her skills well through experience. It was hard to figure out how to explain everything works in words when she doesn’t understand it herself. She felt like everything she does was almost like an instinct, but ‘just believe in your guts’ explanation just isn’t going to cut it at the camp. Shiroe asked her if she would be one of the camp leaders for the summer camp almost immediately when she got back. Since it seemed like they could use more volunteer camp leaders for the camp, Mikie agreed without much thought. But that didn’t seem like a good option a few days later.  

 

A few days later, the first wave of adventures went to scoop out the potential camp area. Mikie wanted to go with them badly. Exploring new areas means there might be new monsters to fight, new dungeon to defeat, and new items to be found. Her request was denied immediately by Shiroe and the Round Table. When people found out her past guild affiliation, everyone started to treat her differently. Some started to avoid her like she was death itself, some were fascinated and wanted to invite her to their parties and raids, and a handful of people tried to shelter her from how other people viewed her. The advance group was the former group that was scared to work with Mikie. Krusty from D.D.D was the middle group that wanted to know to her better and have her join his guild. Shiroe and others in the guild were the latter tried to shelter her feelings.

Despite their best efforts, the rumors in town were just loud, terrible, and grotesque. If you lived anywhere in Akiba, you would have heard. Rumors claimed that she stole EXP pots from the twins, drank the blood of beginners, and sacrificed newbies as part of her training ritual. New rumors just added on preexisting rumors about her nonexistent relationship with Isaac. She asked Shiroe if she should go with him and the others to the meeting instead. A lot of beginners were having second thoughts about going to the summer camp because of the nasty rumor that had run amok. Shiroe encouraged her to go with Nyanta and Naotsugu, the best way to dismiss a rumor was to face it straight on and prove it wrong. 

A week after the advance party left and gave word that everything was good to go, the rest of summer camp group headed the campsite. Mikie felt nervous about the trip just because all the whispers and dirty looks some of the people were sending her way. She was very sensitive to people’s feelings; maybe it was part of her that made her good at her healthcare job. But at times like this, it did hurt her feelings a lot. 

“Don’t worry. We will change their minds about you soon!” Naotsugu gave Mikie a good smack on the back to put some spirit back into the depression looking woman.

“You have to be gentle a mother-to-be Naotsugu-cchi, nya.” Nyanta said in his usual sage cat know it all tone and put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. Mikie rolled her eyes at the teasing cat.

“Come on slowpokes. Get on your horses and let’s go!” Mary-nee called from the front of the line.

“You sure I can’t go with you and Akatsuki?” Mikie gave Shiroe her best puppy pout impression. She hoped somehow he would let her get out of this camp.

“I’m sure you will be fine.” Shiroe waved at Mikie as her Unicorn summon followed the rest of the party.

“Evil Glasses meanie!” Mikie yelled childishly and steered her steed up to the front of the party, where Naotsugu and Nyanta was.

“Ahaha…” Shiroe laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head. He was never good at dealing with older women’s tantrums.

 

Mikie was riding her summon instead of her normal horse was because before the summer camp began, the Round Table asked for everyone in Akiba, especially from the guilds who were sending beginners on the camp, to donate things for the camp. Items included camping gears, blankets, horse summon whistle, and low-level equipment. Mikie loaned her own horse whistle to the twins in her guild. The twins had never touched or ridden a horse before, so they were super excited to summon one and ride one together.

After about one to two hours on horseback, Mikie could smell a difference in the air. And it looked like she wasn’t the only one to notice a difference.

“I can sell salt in the air!” Mary-nee shouted excited next to Naotsugu. Mikie noticed the two had a good time chatting and laughing the whole way. If her gut feeling was right, and it usually is with other people, they were flirting with each other.

The twins, Isuzu, and Rundelhous were riding close together. Isuzu was a bard from Cresent Moon Alliance guild. She was previously also trapped in the Hamelin guild with Minori and Touya, which explain why the three of them looked close. Rundelhous was a weirdo sorcerer that was not affiliated with any guild. No one seemed to know where he came from. Mikie had her suspensions about the kid, but as long as he doesn’t harm anyone on this trip she will let it slide. The moment he became a danger to the group, Mikie swore she would tear him apart herself.

Then there was Nyanta sandwiched between Mikie and Serara. Nyanta and Serara were mostly chatting among themselves, which was fine with Mikie. Mikie was busy listening to the spirits talk anyways. They seem to be in an excited mood today.

As weird as it seemed, Mikie started to be less afraid of the voices and even start enjoy their formless company. Slowly, she had learned to tune in and out to them when she wanted to hear them or not. The voices don’t tell her much. They don’t usual express things in words, but they do express a lot emotions. When they are happy, they sound like soft rings of a bell. When they are angry they sound like someone banging pans together. They also feed off both positive and negative emotions from Landers and Adventures alike, but they do react differently between the two races. Sometimes, the voices do say things in simple words. But Mikie hasn’t figured out what triggered them to speak. This was also how Mikie determined that Rundelhous was not like the rest of them and currently not a treat.

 

“Miss Mikie, nya. Miss Mikie.” Nyanta called to the woman on his other side, much to Serara’s displeasure. The younger girl unconsciously made the slightest frown that no one noticed. 

“Huh?” Mikie only faintly heard the werecat. She turned him with a dazed look. “Did you say something to me?”

“You were drooling a little from the corner of your mouth, nya.” Nyanta smiled kindly.

Mikie blushed a dark shade of red in embarrassment. Her hands flew to her face to wipe it away only to notice there was nothing there. The group of kids in the carriages giggles at the prank. She had been tricked! When did this old cat become a troll? The witty cat chuckled in response. This time Mikie flushed red from anger and tried to push the cat off his horse. But as karma would have it, she lost balance on her mount instead. Nyanta reacted quickly and grabbed on her arm to prevent her from completely fallen off her mount.

“It is okay to daydream, but don’t fall off your horse now, nya. You have to be careful with the baby, nya.” Nyanta teased as he helped Mikie steady herself back on her Unicorn. Mikie shuttered and couldn’t formulate a response with words. She didn’t know Nyanta had this scary mischievous side to him. She might have to start to be careful about how she sleeps at night now. “But back to our original question, we were wondering what kind of dessert you had in American that is made from pears, nya?”

“Pears?” Out of all the fruits, Mikie didn’t know why he was asking about pears. She did notice everyone was looking in her direction when Nyanta asked the question.

“Look how ripe they look.” Touya pointed to some fruits on a nearby tree that Mikie had completely overlooked. “Don’t they look and smell good?”

“Oh,” Mikie gave Touya a secret thumbs up for helping her out. “Well mostly pies, probably. Americans love their fruit pies. There is also make upside down cakes, crumble cakes, and turnovers with pears. Anything you can use apples for, you can substitute with pears.” Mikie tried to recall what they actually had back home.

“How about your favorite way to have a pear Miss Mikie, nya?”

“Oh, I actually like to eat my pears raw as it is. I really like the pears that are yellow, and gets soft and starchy. It’s so sweet, soft and juicy.” Mikie tried to recall her memories of pears, but those memories were foggy.

“Then I’m afraid you might not like these pears then, nya. They are a Japanese pear; it is more crunchy than soft, nya”

“That’s alright, I will still eat it. I have became much less picky with my food now I’m older.”

“And you have to get nutrition for two now, nya.” Someone was having way too much fun after she started carrying the egg almost everywhere with her. It doesn’t seem like the cat will drop the topic anytime soon.  

 

After the short chat, the group arrived at an abandon school group where the advance group was. Mary-nee quickly assigned different group with different tasks to complete. There were already predetermined groups: three training groups, and a chef group. Group one was in charge of cleaning out rooms in the school for the group to sleep at night. Group two was in charge of gathering firewood and rocks to build a campfire for cooking, and also to help group one with cleaning once they are done. Group three and the chef groups were to go to town to establish a good relationship with the town mayor and shop for ingredients for a BBQ tonight. 

Mikie was part of group three, so she followed the group down to town. Once in town Mary-nee gave the groups a bag of coins and tasks to do and set them lose. Then she picked Minori to tag along with her to greet the mayor. Mikie decided she would tag along with Mary-nee and Minori since she wasn’t good at picking out fresh ingredients and bargaining.

 The Mayor’s house was easy enough to find. It was slightly newer, bigger house than the rest of the houses. The three females greeted the mayor politely and gave him a big jug of peach wine as thanks for allowing them to camp near the city. Mary-nee let the man know that we were staying for roughly two to three weeks and will be stopping in town to resupply every few days. The mayor, a kind mid-aged man, loved the gift and told the group they were excited for the business in the next few weeks. 

“How’s it going with you and Isaac?” Mary-nee teased on their way back to meet up with the shopping group. She knew full well the rumors were completely false from Shiroe, but teasing was fun. “I kind of thought you might like the bad boy type. But you bagged one of the worst in Akiba.”

“Not you too, Mary-nee.” Maryele insisted at one point in time to Mikie to call her that instead of her name. “Sure they might be easy on the eyes, but most of them are dumb as rocks. I rather have a mature guy with brains. I enjoy intellectual conversations thanks.”

 “Oh no.” Mary-nee made an exaggerated horrified expression. “Are you falling for Shiroe? Or is it Krusty? This would exclude Naotsugu.” Mary-nee seemed to be relieved when she said Naotsugu’s name. “Oh I know. You like Nyanta? Serara will be very broken hearted if she finds out.”

“Mary-nee, I don’t have a crush on any of them. Serara has nothing to worry about. Has Shiroe told you I’m happy engaged to someone already?”

 “Well he did, but also said you guys are trapped servers apart. The lonely heart will do weird things to one self.”

 “Mary-nee! I’m not cheating on my fiancé, I swear. And I am not going to.” Mikie blamed Naotsugu; that man definitely had rubbed off his weird ideas on this naïve woman. Through the whole thing, Minori just laughed softly between the two’s interactions. “Minori, help me defend my good name.”

“Please don’t get me caught up too.” Minori politely declined, which caused Mikie to pout at the young girl. 

“Come on girls, let’s find the group and head back soon. The day is young; we can hit the beach after lunch. Bring out your best swimsuit!” Mary-nee ran excitedly in front.

“Your intentions are showing.” Mikie teased Mary-nee back. But everyone already knew summer camp was a by-product of Mary-nee’s whining for a summer vacation, there was no point hiding the truth when it was so obvious.


	16. Alcohol is No One's Friend

Mary-nee announced to spend the afternoon of the first day at the beach for training. A lot of beginners were excited about the sunshine, sand, and ocean; it was the first time many of them have seen the sea. Most of the males were excited to see the girls in cute swimsuits.

Mikie was impressed. She grew up around an ocean when she was much younger, but she didn’t appreciate it as much since she had an illogical fear of the sea and any body of water that she can’t see the bottom of. She did not want to guess what could be lurking on the bottom of dark waters. You never knew if an alligator could jump out and try to take a bite out of you; like mentioned before, she have an illogical fear. But she will admit that this view was very breathtaking. There was no man-build structure in view, the calm ocean surface sparkled and reflected the blue sky like a mirror.

It seemed that Mary-nee’s definition of training was to ditch work and play on the beach. But to have a relaxing day isn’t bad once in a while Mikie will admit. If Mikie wasn’t so scared of the ocean, she might have joined the kids in the shallow waters. But today, she opted to sit on a beach chair with Mary-nee under the sun umbrella that shaded both of them. She used the excuse of having taking care of her dragon egg to avoid going anywhere near the water. Both of them watched over the crowd to make sure nobody wondered too far.

 “What’s up with that get up?” Mary-nee whined. She was very disappointed with Mikie’s choice of wardrobe. “Where is the skin? Where is the cleavage? Where are the legs? It’s summer! It’s time to be sexy. You look like a mom that took her kid to the beach.” She said this while doing model poses that showed off all her assets in her two-piece bikini.

“If you keep showing off like that, you will make Naotsugu jealous.” Mikie commented plainly. She actually thought she picked a pretty good outfit for beach day. She wore a long white halter-top dress over her one-piece swimsuit. On her head, she had a big straw sun hat and a pair of sunglasses on the hat brim to complete her look. The egg harness did not go with her summer look, so currently she was had it on her lap. “I think this is pretty summer appropriate already.”

“What?” Mary-nee looked around quickly to see if the guardian was nearby when she heard his name. She then causally took out a lightweight jacket from her bag. “I guess it is a little chilly right now so I will through on a jacket.” She made up an excuse and quickly put clothing item.

“Miss Mikie always dresses modestly, nya.” Nyanta came over to the two ladies with a platter of chilled fresh fruit juices in hand. 

“Is that a bad thing?” Mikie accepted a glass from the werecat and slowly sipped the juice. She wondered if being modest was a bad thing since Larry said the same thing to her before. He always wanted to show her off to his guy friends when they had any type of gathering.

“Clothing can brighten up your look and day.” Mary-nee also took a glass from their temporary butler. 

“I think modest suits you well, nya.” 

“I still think you look like a baby mama.” Mary-nee jeered at the younger woman.

 

After a great afternoon of ‘training’ on the beach, the group headed back to camp for a delicious BBQ dinner in the school yard for all the 60 some people. Before eating, Mary-nee made a few announcements about training teams and schedules for the next few days. After that, it was time for dinner. There were lots to choose from. There were pork, beef, venison, vegetables, and even seafood. Mikie’s personal favorite was the grilled squid, it reminded her of the ones her dad used to grill in the summer time when she was occasionally visiting. 

When the sky began to turn dark, Mikie’s crystal dragon egg glowed. For the two weeks since she got the egg, she did notice the egg absorbed light during the day and gives off light when it was dark. All the beginners who haven’t seen the dragon egg before crowded around her ‘ooh’ed, ‘ahh’ed, and asked her a bunch of questions that Mikie didn’t know the questions to. The most common questions being ‘is it a boy or girl’, or ‘when will it hatch’. After everyone was done eating dinner and fussing over the dragon egg, the camp leaders gathered up most of the younger kids and put them to bed.

“Is the food not to your taste, nya?” Nyanta sat next to Mikie on the log once he finished talking to the twins about tomorrow’s dungeon. Mikie at the moment looked at the stars above them with a half-eaten plate of food forgotten in her lap. The soft blue glow of the egg seemed to make her look especially lost and lonely in this moment.

Mikie was a bit startled when she felt someone sat next to her. “Oh, hi Chief. Why would you think that? Your cooking is delicious as always.” She gave the werecat a very generic small smile. 

“Most of the youngsters went to bed, so the older ones popped open a bottle of cherry wine, nya.” He handed her a glass of dark red liquid. “What’s on your mind Miss Mike, nya?” 

_A lot._ She thought, but she said this to him as she sipped the dark liquid. “Can we have tempura shrimp sometimes over rice?” She did miss the fried shrimp her mom made her when she was there sometimes. She even missed how her mom always reminded her to eat more vegetables and threaten her with constipation.

“Sure, nya. We can get shrimp the next time we go to town, nya.” Nyanta studied the woman’s expression but didn’t press on if she didn’t want to talk about it.

Mikie winced at the taste on her tongue and the burn in her throat. She was never a wine person; it was too bitter. Even when her friends told her a wine was very sweet; she would only taste the bitterness. She occasionally drank very sweet and fruity alcohol or cocktails, but that was even rare because of her low alcohol tolerance. Even now, she was starting to feel lightly buzzed from a few sips of the homemade wine. But getting buzzed also gave Mikie the confidence to ask things she wanted to do but was too embarrassed to ask. “Nyanta-san, can I touch your ears?” The werecat raised an eyebrow at Mikie’s request.

“Sorry, that was a weird request. I just miss my puppies and cat, and you have furry ears. They remind me of my cat’s ears. She normally don’t like me touching, but I want to touch her ears so bad every time.” Mikie babbled after realizing how odd her request was after it came out. She downed whole glass of cherry wine, maybe now won’t remember this embarrassment tomorrow morning. Darn, some things just sounded a lot better when it was still in her head. Mikie was so flustered right now that she couldn’t even look in the general direction of the cat. She could feel the weight shifts on the log; yup, he was getting up and leaving her now because she was too weird. 

Silently, Nyanta moved from his position next to her on the log to the grassy ground. Then took her hands to the top of his head. It delighted her to no end when Nyanta’s ears twitches when she lightly felt them. His fur and ears was soft just like her cat’s. The only difference was she can touch them as much as she want without worrying being scratched or bitten. 

“You can do this whenever you miss them, but let’s keep it our secret, nya?” Mikie couldn’t see the cat’s expression, but she somehow felt the cat smiling. “Tell me about them, nya?”

Mikie felt like she owed him to tell him about her pets in the real world as she played with his ears and fur. Nyanta listened quiet at the stories the woman told about the adventures of her dogs and cat. Mikie’s speech started to slow and slur, and eventually stopped to a soft snore.

 

Mikie had aching in her noggin when she woke up early next morning. She woke up to an old, cracked concrete roof. She was in the schoolroom with the rest of her group. Most of the people were still sound asleep. She remembered parts of the conversation she had with Nyanta last night, but she couldn’t remember how the night ended or how she got here. She frowned when she remembered clearly that how awkward it was to ask the older man to touch his cat ears. She flushed at the memory. Great, now she will never be able look him straight in the eyes again after making a silly request like that.

She headed out to the yard where the cooks were already cooking breakfast for the group and chatting with some of the camp leaders. As expected, Nyanta was already busy cooking up pancakes this morning. Mikie tried to sneak behind him to go wash up in the nearby ponds.

“Good morning, Miss Mikie, nya.”

“Eek!” Mikie jumped in surprised. The cat seemed to have eyes from the back of his head. “G-good morning Sir Cat. Morning Serara!” She greeted the cat and saw the young druid girl next to him too.

“Humph.” Serara stomped away childishly with dishes in her hands when Mikie made eye contact. 

“Huh?” Mikie was starting to really wonder what happened last night. Mary-nee and Naotsugu quickly pulled Mikie off to the forest. “What’s going on with Serara this morning?” Mikie asked Mary-nee. She hadn’t seen the girl this upset before.

“Oh you! Did you lie to me yesterday to cover yours tracks? Don’t you remember anything from last night? ” Mary-nee hugged and fussed over the confused woman.

“Man, Chief has always been a pretty private person and never had any gossips before, man now he is the talk of the camp.” Naotsugu announced with glee. 

“What the hell happened last night?” Mikie demanded from the two. It seemed like whatever happened was big.

“You were all over him and then he carried you princess style and put you to bed. What are your feelings for our Chief?” Naotsugu asked Mikie with an imaginary microphone in hand.

“It was so romantic! A lot of people saw, Serara included. She has been in a bad mood since last night.” Mary-nee reported.

“Oh no…I wish he would have just left me to sleep outside. Oh gosh, what do you mean I was all over him?” Mikie felt the heat rising to her cheeks fast. Coming to camp was one of the worst decisions that Mike had made so far.

“That’s between you and him. You will have to ask him. We are not nosy people, you know?” Mary-nee shook her index finger at Mikie. “But you guys did look super intimidate!” 

_Right, not nosy people at all._ Mikie thought. “Well, I’m going to wash up at the pond nearby. If I don’t come back, don’t try to find me.” Mikie half joked as she took off in the direction away from camp in a hurry.

“Don’t worry, if you don’t come back, we will just send Chief to look for you.” Naotsugu shouted behind her. Mikie just rolled her eyes at the big dummy. She was tempted to actually not come back for the whole day just to make Naotsugu feel responsible for all his teasing.

 

While Mikie was down by the pond, Serara followed her to talk to her in private, a pretty bold move for the usual timid girl.

“Mikie-san, what is your relationship with Nyanta-san?”

“That seemed to be the question of the day.” Mikie said more to herself.

“Please don’t avoid the question. How do you feel about Nyanta-san”

“He is a guild mate.”

“And?” 

“An acquaintance, can’t really say friend since he likes to keep a lot of private stuff to himself. He is really hard to read compared to the others.”

“And?” The girl kept asking. Mikie knew what the girl was trying to get out of her, but she was just fishing for something that wasn’t there.

“Do you like Nyanta, Serara?”

“Eep!” The girl blushed when caught. “Wh-wh-wh-what are you talking about? I don’t like Nyanta-san. I mean I do like him. N-no that’s not what I meant.” 

“I will put it this way for you Serara. Nyanta is just a gentleman. He tries to take care everyone he cares about. So whatever you saw last night wasn’t because we are dating or anything. We care about each other like you care about people in your guild. I’m happily engaged to someone I love already, and it is not that cat. I have a ring to prove in the other world, and it’s a pretty big rock let me tell you”

“I’ll accept that for now I guess.” Serara seem to be chipper now Mikie had cleared up whatever happened last night. Now Mikie just needed to casually find out what exactly happened last night after she started drinking from the werecat.

“You ready for the big day at the dungeon?” Mikie started small talks as the two headed back to camp together.

“I have never been in one. I’m nervous.” 

“Don’t worry. Just make sure you guys have good communications and you guys will be fine.” 

“I heard you almost drove your team members to death from overworking them on your last dungeon.”

“Haha, being bossy is also a way of communication.” Mikie let out a dry laugh.

 


	17. Small Details

When the two got back to camp, Mary-nee was relieved that the two seemed to be chatting like friends again. Mary-nee was worried when she saw Serara ran off after Mikie. It seemed whatever Serara ran off to talk to Mikie about must have been resolved well. Serara even sat next to Mikie for breakfast to get to know the woman more.

After breakfast, the beginner made their way to their training sites. Those under level 20 were assigned to hunt monster in the nearby forests and the beach. Beginners between levels 20 to 35 were to make their way to the Ragranda Forest Dungeon. Then beginners level 36 and above were to meet up camp leaders of their respective classes to have special trainings.

 

Mikie, Nyanta, Naotsugu, and Rezarick, a human male cleric from the Black Sword Knights, lead a group of beginners to the dungeon site. The camp leaders were there to set up camp, wait for the group to go in and out of the dungeon, give them a place to rest, and give them advice if needed.

It took the group of 15 a few hours to reach the dungeon on foot. It was already noon when they arrived at the plaza to set up camp. There were a total of four tents set up. Two tents were for the beginners, one was for the male camp leaders, and the last one served three purposes. The slightly smaller tent than the rest was Mikie’s personal sleeping area, but it also a storage area, and a changing room for all the female beginners when she wasn’t there.

The male camp leaders in the group made some inspirational speeches to the group after a quick lunch. With nothing much left to say, Mikie reminded all the beginners that teamwork, planning, and communication were important, and wished all of them good luck. Rezarick then divided up the group of 11 beginners into two parties and send them off into the dungeons.

After the two groups spend 15 minutes talking among themselves, hopefully getting to know each other’s fighting style, and figuring out their plan of attack. After a short while, both groups made their way down into the dungeon. 

“So there is not too much to do now. Do you mind if I take off to do some personal training?” Mikie asked as she polished her dragon egg to get rid of all fingerprints on the crystal surface.

“I think we have everything covered here, nya.”

“We will let you know if anything comes up.” Naotsugu agreed.

Rezarick nodded in her direction without saying anything.

“Okay, I won’t be too far. I just have to increase my tame level on some of my monsters. Call me if anything comes up.” With everyone’s approval, Mikie took off on a nearby forest path on the back of her Unicorn.

 

Once she felt like she was far away enough from the group. She found a big opening in the forest with a pond in the middle. One of the things she wanted to find out was if she could understand her summons better now she could hear the spirit voices better. She summoned each of her companions one by one to speak with them.

The light spirit that a lot of people summon to use at night hummed like electricity running through a wire. It was a happy spirited that smiled cutely back at her. She couldn’t understand Siren, Undine, and Sylph at all. All three of them only conversed with sounds of bells or in songs in languages that Mikie didn’t understand. Fay gave her the cold shoulder and refused to talk to her all together.

Ifrit and Unicorn just made their respective animal noises. Salamander stayed silent like a turtle no matter what Mikie tried to get the fire turtle to make a sound. Her un-hatched crystal dragon didn’t make a sound either, but Mikie expected that. It seemed like the egg still had a long way to go before it will be close to hatching. Lastly, she summoned Phoenix who she knew could converse in the human tongue.

‘About time.’ The giant bird huffed as he stretched his wings and settled himself in the opening. ‘Do you have meat?’

“Answer this before I give you meat. How come you are the only one who speaks?”

‘We all have their own language. I’m one of the few species who can speak the human language since I had over a millennia to learn many things. Hm, you been brushing up your listening skills. You can hear me better now?’

“Yea, seems so.” 

‘Hm, this is an improvement.’ The giant bird paused as he was listening to someone else talking. ‘Yet you still don’t hear a lot of things. But hear this loud and clear, give me meat!’ The bird demanded with violent flaps of his wings and gave ear-hurting shrill.

“Oh, quiet down you oversized, tantrum throwing, red chicken.” She covered her ears with both hands at the unpleasant noise. The sound was worse than someone scratching a blackboard with nails. But she took out meat from her bag regardless since Phoenix did answer her question. “Can you understand the others?”

‘Rude. If you keep talking like that, you won’t make many friends. Yes, I am one of the ancient species in this world. I have accumulated much more knowledge than some of the young ones you have. I can’t say I approve of the unborn one.’ The much older monster gave the dragon egg a dirty look.

“What do you have against an innocent unborn child?” Mikie hugged the egg to her body like a protective mother.

‘It is a dragon. Our species are not friendly with its greedy species. All they care about is gold and precious stones. This one is also of the ice and wind element. It doesn’t mix well with my fire attribute. There is a high chance it will rebill against you, Summoner.’

“Why?”

‘Do you think it’s by luck that you have more fire attribute type summons than any other type? You have a natural affinity with fire. Those loved by fire are hated by ice. Fire and ice are opposites of this world. They don’t mix well. 

“That makes a lot of things clear actually. Is that why Fay don’t like me?” 

‘That is one reason among many.’

 

Mikie and Phoenix talked for about an hour before she got a telepathy call from Nyanta for her to return to camp. The lower-level group seemed to run into a lot of trouble during their first time in a dungeon. During the hour, she did learn that summons had their own names besides the ones adventures knew them by. Like the giant bird she was talking to, his name actual was actually Eternal Sun. Although most of them don’t mind summoner just calling by their specie name, it was still considered rude. It was the equivalent of calling any human you see Human.

When Mikie returned to camp, she noticed the long faces of Minori, Touya, Serara, Isuzu, and Rundelhous. They seemed very disappointed that they didn’t even last over an hour in the dungeon when the other group still hadn’t come out yet. From the looks of the groups HP and MP status, Mikie had a rough idea how their first attempt went. The raid must have ended in an all out everyone for themselves kind of battle. 

“Let’s go back after we recover our HP and MP.” Touya declared.

“Yes, we just need more practice!” Rundelhous agreed with Touya. The group got pumped up to head back into the dungeon. This dungeon could be ran up to two times per day, so the group had another attempt they could use today. However, the camp leaders stopped the ambitious group. They knew the group wasn’t ready to attempt the dungeon again. If they failed again so soon, it might hurt their confidence and stun their growth. Nyanta told the girls to collect firewood for lunch and dinner, Naotsugu instructed the guys to fetch water for the camp.

 

While all the beginners were away, Mikie finally worked up the courage to ask Nyanta what happened last night that caused the huge commotion this morning. While she talked to the werecat, she definitely heard Naotsugu eavesdropping and snickering somewhere in the background.

“You seemed distressed about your cat giving you the cold shoulder after you drank a little much, nya. When I tried to carry you to bed, you cling to me while yelling in the school courtyard, ‘Why don’t you love me, Mimi! I love you so much. Is it because I overfed you and got you fat?!’ and ‘All I want to do is touch your ears and cuddle with you!’ and so on and so forth, nya.”

“Oh.” Mikie let out a heavy sigh. She guessed that was embarrassing for anyone that saw, but how did people take it so out of context. This can be easily cleared up. Sure some of the thing she said might have been ambiguous to some people, but all she said was about her cat. She loved her grey tabby cat in her world named Mimi. It wasn’t like she was declaring her love for this were-cat. After finally founding out what transpired last night, Mikie felt the awkwardness and a heavy weight lift from her. “Thanks for clearing that up.” Mikie’s mood suddenly was elevated and she skipped off to the picnic table to relax while waiting for the kids to come back after their chores. 

 

After the kids were done with the chores around the camp, they were free to do anything expect for returning to dungeon. Can’t find anything productive to do, the kids sat gloomily together.

“How did it go in there?” Mikie asked even though she had a pretty good idea already. Somehow the camp leaders voted her to comfort the group.

“It could have gone better.” Minori said with her bangs covering her eyes.

“Yea? Did you guys bite off more than you can chew?” Mikie asked vaguely.

“Oh.” The group responded as a whole. It seemed like they might have picked the hint she was dropping. As expected, they group followed the other group into the higher difficulty route and got themselves into a pickle.

From what the four adults could gather, the group did not lack any spirit or motivation. They were too ambitious, lacked communication and strategies kills. The adults talked among themselves but eventually all agreed that they would only guide them in the right direction and would not hand out free answers. The group will have to learn to solve problems on their own eventually. To hand out freebies would be detrimental to the group’s future. They hoped by giving them free time, each of them would reflect on their mistakes and come up with a new plan.

 

For the next few days, after the two groups entered the dungeon, Mikie would excuse herself to train and learn from Sun (short for Eternal Sun) until she was called back from camp. The lower level group had improved somewhat. They could now stay in the dungeon to hunt for about 3 hours. Instead of going left, they went right the second day after Mikie’s hint. They will continue to go right until they have a better handle on things and beat the right side of the dungeon. 

Mikie expressed some concerns about the relationship between summoners and summons to Sun during their sessions in the next few days. While summons were useful because of the variety of monsters to choose from, their attack power were also capped by the world’s design. A summoned monster only had one third of the attack power of the same monster in the wild because the monsters obtained minion monster rank once tamed or captured. Minion monster rank was the lowest rank and weakest monsters in the world. So if a summoned monster were to fight with its natural relative one-on-one, it would lose every time.

“Is there a way to avoid this system? You guys would be so much stronger that way.”

‘You can free us. We will regain our original powers that way. Some of us don’t like working with humans you know. Someone of us want to return home.’

“You guys want to be freed? I do feel bad to have captured you guys. The world was a difference place than a few month ago, I swear.”

‘Many of you take us from our homes and forced to be your slaves to fight for you. How would you feel if you were in our positions?’ Sun ruffled his feathers angrily. A heat wave struck Mikie, and she felt the bird’s displeasure quite literally. ‘When we are not called on, we are stuck in an invisible energy form around the summoner. I believe this form is what you would call spirit form. We do not have a life to call our own when we are under contract.’ 

“You mean, you guys are always with me even when you are not called on?” Mikie asked with a stupid expression on her face. Her daydreams about what her summons do while not called on were all suddenly shattered. Learning this fact did help clear up some of questions of how could they arrive so fast to anywhere in the world and how they can get into deep dungeons.

‘We might not be right next to you, but we are always within a certain radius of your physical body.’ Sun nodded.

“All the voices I near, do they belong you guys?” Mikie had a sudden horrifying realization.

‘Some. Others are of the ancient trees and other old things.’ 

“Why protect me? All of you could just let me die or lead me into danger. If I somehow died completely, you would all be freed! Wouldn’t you?”

‘If you somehow die forever while we are still under contract, we will be all forever stuck in the spirit form. But without you, our beacon, our spirit will slowly scatter and our thoughts will slowly merge with the world and dissolve into nothing. So it is in our best interest to keep you safe to the best of our abilities.’

Mikie stayed silent. She didn’t realize this was the point of view of monsters under summoners. She felt disgusted with herself and other summoners. Things she never had to think about before were so cruel and dark. “I will free you right now. All of you.” She made up her mind. Sun will be the first of many. 

‘Don’t be so hasty now. I don’t like your kind, but it’s amusing to watch you tiny humans running everywhere and going nowhere. So I choose to stick with you for now.’

“You will stick with me? Even though my kind has captured and abused your kind? Even if you don’t have a life of your own?”

‘You are not a bad human compared to some. A lot of my brethren’s have it a lot worse. You should ask the others what they want before deciding for everyone.’

“Yes.” Why was Sun so smart compared to herself? Oh wait, he was ancient, it had a lot of time to learn many things.

Sun seemed to examine Mikie’s sincerity before making up his mind on something ‘Back to your original question, there is a ritual we can use. With your current level and equipment, you might be able to handle it. There is a chance that it would go very badly and destroy you from the inside out. 

“That’s very comforting. Can I use the same spell with other summons later?” 

‘No, this spell is only a pact that binds you and I. You will have to ask the others about how to use their powers better. For now, find a day and time when the sunlight is bright and strong and gather these items. We will perform the ritual then.’ A new quest notification seem to pop up in Mikie’s mental screen with the requirements for the ritual listed out. Mikie questioned some of the requirements, but Sun told her there weren’t anyways around them if she didn’t want to explode inside out from a overflow of magic.

After Mikie dismissed Sun, she summoned the rest of her summons in groups to talk to them. First she apologized to all of them on how thoughtless she had been with them and offered each of them the chance to be freed from their current positions. Of the nine summons she had, two left her service. Fay left after casting a blizzard spell on her and flew away without looking back. Salamander looked at her before crawling towards the trees slowly. As those who stayed, she asked them to be in a mutual relationship with her from now on. Even thought she still didn’t understand their languages, she could feel the delight radiating off of them and their bonds growing stronger. She also had asked each of the summons to see if they knew their unique ritual spell that can help her in the future. However, due to the language barrier, her summons couldn’t understand her and she couldn’t understand them. Unsure if it was her special bonds with fire summons that Sun spoke of or if Ifrit understood her intent, Mikie received a second awakening ritual quest.

 

When she returned to camp, it seemed Minori’s group had returned after 3 hours again that day. They group had shown slight improvement from the first day. They could now fight for up to 3 hours in the dungeon, but that wasn’t any kind of accomplishment to be proud about. They have taken the easier route but still could not reached the end of the dungeon after trying for so long. When Mikie went with the Black Sword Knights two month ago, the group could spend up to 12 hours in the dungeon everyday. They would only stop for the day after Mikie had pushed everyone to the point of collapsing from completely exhaustion. The other beginner party usually would come back after 6 hours in the harder route. Mikie could tell the party of five was dejected that they still couldn’t last very long in the dungeon even after taking the easier route.

After the Minori’s party helped with camp chores for the day, most of them went off to do their own things. Rundelhous and Touya both stomped off somewhere to train. Serara would spend the day glued next to her cat crush and helped cooking with dinner. Isuzu would usually head out to the designated bathing pond to wash-up for the day. Minori would usually sit silently under somewhere staring intensely at her small precious notebook filled with notes and tips from Shiroe. The pages of the notebook were slightly wrinkled from been read and flipped through repeatedly. Minori had a zealous look in her eyes, trying to search some kind of answer that she might have missed from her notes. 

“If you keep glaring at your notes, you are going to end up with a premature wrinkle right here.” Mikie gentled placed her index finger between the young girl’s furrowed brows. Mikie sat next to the girl who seemed to feel responsible for the group’s failure.

“Mikie-san!” The small girl jumped at the sudden contact. She was so focused that she didn’t even hear her footsteps or her sitting down next to her. 

“The answers you seek are not going to be in there.” Mikie said in a wise tone that didn’t suit her. “Words on paper are only words. Words are dead, people are alive. Have you talked with your group?”

“But I am the lowest level in the group.”

“So? I was at least 10 levels lower than everyone else in my group. I whooped my group’s butt in shape and led them. Being lowest doesn’t mean you are any inferior than them. Remember what the old cat said before, ‘Move forward with your hearts’”

“Oh.” Minori’s mood improved and seemed to have reached an answer. “Mikie-san, what you said before sounded like something from a movie.”

“Ahaha, I probably did quote someone from a book or film from back home.”


	18. Hidden Quest Masterials

At night, Mikie sat in her tent looking at the materials needed to conduct the ritual quests. Her quest menu list out the following: 

**Sun’s Blessing Ritual**

Quest progress

[Red Flame Crystal] 8/20

[High Quality Ruby] 3/10

[Scarlett Witch’s Hat] 0/1

Pre-requisite: Sub-class: Songstress

Pre-requisite: Player must have already learned Ritual Song: [An Ancient’s Awaking Song] before the ritual, or the ritual will end in failure. If the ritual fails, all materials used in process will be destroyed. Quest progress: 0/100%

Pre-requisite: Player must have already learned Ritual Dance: [The Ancient’s Dance] before the ritual, or the ritual will end in failure. If the ritual fails, all materials used in process will be destroyed. Quest progress: 0/100% 

 

**Ifrit’s Blessing Ritual**

Quest progress

[Red Flame Crystal] 8/15

[High Quality Ruby] 3/8

[Crimson Boar Tusk] 0/10

[Crimson Boar Leather] 0/3

Pre-requisite: Sub-class: Songstress 

Pre-requisite: Player must have already learned Ritual Song: [Warrior’s War Song] before the ritual, or the ritual will end in failure. If the ritual fails, all materials used in process will be destroyed. Quest progress: 0/100%

Pre-requisite: Player must have already learned Ritual Dance: [Warrior’s Dance] before the ritual, or the ritual will end in failure. If the ritual fails, all materials used in process will be destroyed. Quest progress: 0/100%

 

There was no useful description for the quests; the quests only listed all the things that needed to be gathered or learned to complete. But it was handy that the quest process function was somehow still kept.

Both the quests required some of the same items, Mikie would need to pick one of the quests to fulfill and hold off on the other until she could gather the items again. Because she doesn’t know what the end results of the rituals will be, it was hard to decide on which one to complete first.

The crystals and gems weren’t rare items. Normal monsters occasionally would drop some and it could also be mined in caves. But they weren’t common drops either that was dropped or found often. There were crystal and gems of different colors, getting the right color ones relied heavily on luck. Mikie knew where to farm those two items in the North America server since the items were common materials for crafting all sorts of equipment. But in the Japanese server, she had no idea where to start look for the rocks, tusks, and hat. She would have to ask the Elder Tale veterans for advice on those items. As for the ritual song and dance, she will have to ask Sun and Ifrit to see if they knew anything.

 

During some point in the night, rain clouds rolled over the forest. Mikie fell asleep to the sound of the summer rain hitting on her tent. She snuggled up with her egg in her arms. During the warm humid night, the egg was almost like her personal air condition unit that helped cooled the air around her. When she woke up, it was still cloudy and raining. None of the beginners had come out of their tents yet. Like usual, Naotsugu and Rezarick were sitting around the makeshift picnic table while Nyanta prepped for breakfast.

“What are we having for breakfast today?” Mikie asked casually as she got ready to head out to the closest pond to do her morning routine.

“How does crab chowder sound and sandwiches sound?” Nyanta looked up from his workstation. Mikie stepped over to his counter to see what ingredient he had all lay out 

“Have you considered putting in sweet corn in the chowder at all? It would just help bring extra sweetness to the seafood in the soup and add a different texture to the otherwise mushy soup.” While Mikie doesn’t know too much about how to cook specific food, she did like eating food at lot in the real world. She loved going to different restaurants and trying out new flavors. She ate out more often than at home. Mikie often made helpful suggestions to help Nyanta enhance his flavors just a little more. “Can I just have toast this morning with my soup?” 

“I think you would make a wonder chef Miss Mikie, nya.”

“Ha.” Mikie forced out a fake laugh. “I’m a terrible cook and I definitely would give everyone food poisoning if I tried. I’m heading out to wash up. I will be back soon.”

After she quickly washed her face in cool water at a nearby pond, she headed back to camp. When she arrived, Serara was up and buzzed around Nyanta as usual. Nyanta would occasional say things like “You would make a good housewife one day Serara-cchi, nya” and make the girl turn into a blushing mess. Sometimes Mikie wondered Nyanta realize the effect he had on Serara or not, or he just says that to anyone.

Mikie had been blessed with the ability to understand people’s personalities quickly and decently well. However, Nyanta, the master of trolling, remained a mystery to her. She can’t read the older man at all, and it bothered her. She knew he was kind and liked to tease. He talked like an old man and said he was a middle-aged man but sometimes says things and acts outside of his age. Mikie had a nagging feeling the cat wasn’t being complete truthful and wanted to keep his real life identity hidden. _Why is he being so mysterious, who does he think he is? A celebrity trying to hide in plain sight?_ Mikie rolled her eyes at the thought.

 

“Breakfast is ready, I will delivery them to the groups.” Serara announced like a girl trying to impress. She tried to carry a big bowl of soup and a giant plate of sandwiches. She almost sent everything flying to the forest floor when she stumbled under the weight of all the food and plates. Nyanta quickly intervened and took the heavy bowl of soup from the girl.

“It looks like you could use some help, nya.”

“T-th-thank you, Nyanta!” The girl squealed out her crush’s name and blushed even harder when the cat smiled kindly down at her.

 _So obvious._ The three other camp leaders at the table thought at the same time.

“Why don’t you take what you and Nyanta have to your group Serara. Naotsugu, Rezarick, and I will take care of the other group.” Mikie offered.

“Eh? A-ah.” Serara became a red blabbering mess again.

After the odd couple was out of hearing rang, Rezarick asked Mikie and Naotsugu, “Do you think it will work between those two?”

“No idea. Chief never had gossips before. This is fun!” Naotsugu said proudly. Mikie shook her head at the guardian’s reasoning. 

“I have no idea, but we might as well to give them the best chance possible.” Mikie said as she grabbed the second tray of sandwiches sitting on the counter. But Rezarick quickly took the tray out of her hands. Everyone treated her like a pregnant woman and it was starting to get annoying. She went to grab the pot of soup when she saw Naotsugu didn’t move a muscle to help. Rezarick quickly interfered and asked the Naotsugu to deliver the food with him. With nothing to do Mikie sat down at the table alone with her egg.

“This is all your fault.” She said to the egg. The egg only glowed in response.

 

After the breakfast was delivered, the camp leaders all gathered back at the table for breakfast. The four ate and chatted.

“Oh, that reminds me. I’m looking for a place to mine Red Flame Crystals and High Quality Rubies, and a place where can I hunt for a Scarlet Witch’s Hat, Crimson Boar Tusks, and Crimson Boar Leathers.” Mikie said casually to the other three. 

“What are you making? I don’t recall an item recipe that uses those items. Is it a new one you found during your dungeon raid?” Rezarick asked with great interest. The Black Sword Knights party that had returned with Mikie deposited a small mountain of valuables into the guild bank. The member mentioned that Mikie had first picks at the content of every dungeon run because they would not have made so many runs and level up as much if it weren’t for her. She only took a handful of things and told them they could have the rest. However, they did not know what items she took from the raids.

“No, not at all. It is actually two new summoner’s quests I got yesterday after improving my relationship with Sun and Ifrit. It is supposed to help me learn new skills.”

“The Red Flame Crystals and High Quality Rubies aren’t really that rare, nya. I believe some of the monsters even in this low level dungeon might drop those items, nya.”

“The Scarlet Witch’s Hat is an equipment drop from mid-tier the dungeon boss Scarlet Witch.” Rezarick recalled from his previous gaming experiences. “It is an uncommon drop, but it is considered trash because of the poor equipment stats compared to some of the other hats around the level range. Some girls keep it for fashion purposes. I could check with the guild when I call them tonight. I doubt anyone would mind selling an item like that to you if we do have one.”

“Well I can’t help you with the hat. But I definitely have more than 10 tusks and leather on me…What? Why are you staring at me like that? Stop. It’s getting creepy!” Naotsugu shivered when he saw Mikie staring at him with big appreciative eyes.

“You are actually being useful once!” Mikie exclaimed like it was a miracle. She held out her hands expectantly to Naotsugu and make a “give me” gesture towards the guardian.

“Come on. Give me more credit than that!” Naotsugu pouted like someone poured cold water all over him. “You must be hanging out with Akatsuki too much.” But being the big teddy bear guy he was, Naotsugu took out 10 [Crimson Boar Tusks] and 3 [Crimson Boar Leather] from his magic bag and handed into Mikie’s waiting hands. The moment Mikie received the items, she got notifications that [Crimson Boar Tusks] in the quest showed 10/10 and [Crimson Boar Leathers] showed 3/3.

 

After the camp leaders finished eating and cleaning up, the higher-level group already handed back their dishes and were off to the dungeons for the day. There were no signs of motion in lower-level party’s tent. Curious, Mikie went to take a look to see what’s going on.

“Hey guys, how’s it going? Are you guys going to the dungeon?” Mikie asked causally as she popped her head in the tent to see what the younger kids were up to. The kids seemed to be in some short of deep discussion when Mikie popped in and made all of them jump in their seat.

“Oh, we weren’t planning to go today. We were thinking about spending the day together to know each other better…” Minori said with her head lowered. She felt embarrassed to tell Mikie that because the group had been together for close to a week now. It didn’t seemed right to just to get to know each other only now. Wasn’t that something they probably should have done on day one?

“We realized that we don’t know anything about each other.” The kind Serara chimed in after seeing Minori was put in a bad position with Mikie. All of the other members all looked embarrassed too but didn’t say anything.

Instead of being upset or angry with them, Mikie praised them with a big smile. “That is a good way to start. I will leave you guys to it then.”

 

“What’s the situation?” Rezarick asked when he saw Mikie coming back to the table with a proud smile.

“They won’t be going to the dungeon today, but they are finally figuring things out.” Mikie smiled fondly. The other three camp leaders all nodded to themselves. The day seemed to have improved a lot despite the dark clouds, rain, and fog. “If no one opposes, I am going to take their usual route and hunt for the quest items I need.”

“The chance of items drop is decreased with your level gap.” Rezarick stated the obvious. In Elder Tale, there was no level cap on dungeons that prevent a player from entering. But if the player was more than 10 levels over the maximum recommended level to run a dungeon, they would not get any experience from killing any of the monsters and the chance of items dropping would also decrease significantly.

“Better some chance than no chance from not trying. Besides, with the level gap I can go solo the dungeon easily.” Red flame crystal and high quality ruby were not rare by any means, but they weren’t common material either. Mikie hoped because they weren’t rare, she might get lucky and find a few. Also, there was also a chance finding those items random in the walls of caves, like the walls dungeon area.

“You can’t stop her once her mind is made up. You should just give up.” Naotsugu patted the cleric on the back when he was about the object. Summoners weren’t the strongest class in the game. They were still part of the mage class, had low health, and were bad at close combat. They usually need a tank to draw the attention of monsters and then help from afar. Even if there is a big level gap between Mikie and the dungon monsters, to actually go solo the dungeon that had higher spawn than the wild seemed like a bad idea to Rezarick.

“Stop overthinking it.” Mikie stopped Rezarick before he could utter out an objection. Mikie could almost see his brain working overtime through his worried gaze. “The level gap is enough. It’s only a maximum level 35 dungeon. There is a 50 level gap!”

“You should have more trust in your comrades, nya.” Nyanta supported Mikie’s decision too.

With little to say, Rezarick could only admit defeat and wished Mikie good luck. 

Before leaving, Mikie left the egg to Nyanta’s care for the day. She didn’t know if Rezarick would try to keep the egg for the Black Sword Knights for research purposes. Naotsugu was too careless and would probably drop or bump her baby more than one time while she was gone. She hated to have to come back with the egg splattered on the ground from being accidentally dropped or misplaced by the big goof. By eliminating the other two male quickly, the only reasonable candidate left was Nyanta. Nyanta didn’t seem mind at all since he would have a personally air condition strapped to him for the humid day. With the egg in good hands, Mikie’s silhouette disappeared into the dim dungeon.

 

Down in the dungeon, Mikie immediately summoned her light spirit to light the way, Sylph to buff her status, and Ifrit as her main attacker. She could summon up to 4 summons, but so far she could only successfully maintain 3 summons with a few more limitations. Her team arrived at the branch within minutes. Before coming to the branch of in the dungeon that separate the two difficulty levels, the skeletons killed by the beginner group in front had not re-spawned yet. To make sure she didn’t disrupt the higher-level training group, Mikie took the easier path.

“Ifrit, Sylph, the dungeon won’t be too hard, but please let me know if you guys notice anything red and shiny on the walls or among the bones. Okay?” Beating the dungeon wasn’t her primary goal, collecting material was.

As expected, even as Mikie charged careless into enemy territory, none of the skeletons and skeleton archers could do anything. With one hit with her fire magic, she can reduce an archer into dust in the distance. With one pounce from Ifrit, any skeleton near by Mikie would get brutally broken into pieces. Sylph diligently flew around the dungeon alerting the group of hidden monsters and looking for red shiny objects. When the wind fairy found any hidden monsters, she would cast a wind spell to push it into the group’s sight. And if she found a red object, she would circle the spot until Mikie came to examine the object.

The rest of the dungeon continued just like that; all the skeletons were brutally crushed with no way of resisting. Mikie made it to the end of the dungeon and defeated the Burning Dead, the dungeon boss in the easy route, in no time. In the end, the whole run only took her a little over hours hours to explore the whole easy route side. This included her examining every nook and cranky, every red stone that they came across in the cave. Then she took another two hours to use her second dungeon run for the day. The results weren’t great, but wasn’t too terrible either. She had found 6 [Red Flame Crystals] and 2 [High Quality Ruby] among lots of other color stones. Her quest progress increased for both quests she had, she almost had enough material one of her quests. But so close, yet so far away!

Mikie towards the mouth of the dungeon but didn’t want to head back to camp yet. She felt if the Minori and her group found out how fast it took her to rush the dungeon twice, it might heavily discourage the kids. So she opted to sit on the base of the steps at the entrance with Ifrit to kill a little more time before heading back. 

She sat with Ifrit curled protectively around her for a while before she decided to be more productive with her time. She asked Ifrit about the song requirement for the ritual. In response to her question, Ifrit started to beat his tail on the ground to create a steady beat. This didn’t feel like a normal tail thumping. Mikie could feel a strong drum beat from the earth resonating through her whole being. Then she heard a tone that sounded like war song in an ancient language that went with the strong beat. The mysterious tone lasted for 2-3 minutes before pausing and repeating. After a while, Mikie could start humming along to the choruses of the song. 

Once Mikie started to get the hang of the tune, Ifrit unwrapped himself from his protective position around Mikie and stretched. Then, he started to move with the beats of the song around Mikie. At first Mikie was confused to what Ifrit was doing. After some staring, she finally realized he was dancing to the music! When she made that realization, she started to see a dimly glowing human silhouette moving and turning perfectly coordinated to Ifrit’s movement. It was almost like playing the Just Dance games that she will need to copy the motions of the silhouette. But this was more difficult to do since she will need to time her movements perfectly with Ifrit or she would trip over him and vice versa.

After trying to learn the song and steps to the dance for only a little over an hour, Mikie felt exhausted. She mostly felt exhausted mentally from awkwardly dancing, moving her arms, and stepping on Ifrit multiple times to a song that only she and Ifrit could hear. She hoped that none of the beginners in the dungeon saw her. Because if they did see her somehow, it would have looked like she was flinging her arms randomly like a crazy person, and she would melt into a puddle from embarrassment on the spot. What was even more discouraging was the quest progress for learning the song and dance for Ifrit’s quest was only at 10% and 2% respectively. Sometimes she wondered if she picked the wrong subclass.

Mikie decided she had burned enough time in the dungeon and headed back to camp. The camp leaders asked how she did, Mikie only answered with, "Could be better". 

“Why didn’t you just ask the two beginner groups if they had any and see if you could buy it off them? I’m sure they have a decent amount with how many runs they have now made. The drop rate for them might be better too since you are too high leveled for this dungeon.” Naotsugu made a helpful suggestion when the camp leaders saw Mikie returned to camp slightly dejected.

“Why didn’t you mention that before I left?” Helpful or not, Mikie smiled a strained smile and had a sudden urge to strangle the man twice the size as her in this instance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last of the pre-written chapters from months ago. Have not been working on this fanfic for a while now/having no motivation to write. Updates will be slow from now on...Sorry OTZ.


	19. Trouble

The training session for the two groups of beginners was over at the Ragranda dungeon located in the Sand Leaf peninsula. In the blink of an eye, the group had already spent a whole week at the training site. It was time to pack up and head back to the school grounds for another beginner group to use the dungeon. 

In the short time they spent here, all the 11 beginners had leveled up really fast. The 5 person group now could run the dungeon all the way through and had even fought their way through the hard side. Better than any dungeon progress, the little group had bonded well and learned a lot about teamwork.

Mikie’s dragon egg still showed no sign of movement from within. She can’t say she was all that surprised since she had been neglecting her duty as mom - the egg warmer. After the first day she went to the dungeon for materials, she made it a daily routine to search for material and practice the ritual song and dance require for the quests. In the daytime, she would leave the egg in Nyanta’s care. She spent her mornings with Ifrit or Sun for study sessions. Ifrit would continue to teach her the song and dance, and Sun would teach her new things about of this world along with his quest requirements. She would return to camp for a quick meal before heading into the dungeon after one of the beginner group was done for the day. She would join the group for dinner before getting her egg back from Nyanta and turn in for the day.

Mikie also had bought or traded all the stones and gems that the two beginner groups were willing to part with. She had enough material to complete Ifrit’s Blessing Ritual. However, her progress for the song and dance part of the ritual remained slow. Her song progress for the quest was at 50% but her dance progress was only at a 22%. She found out that she wasn’t required to know the ancient lyrics to the song from Sun. She just had to understand the intent of the words and hum with the same intent.

But there were no shortcuts to the dances unfortunately. She couldn’t help she was a clumsy fool who trip over her own feet when trying to learn the dance. Some of the movements of the dance were just too impossible to pull off. Seriously, how was she supposed to jump into midair and make it seem she was floating in air effortlessly for at least 2 seconds?

 

While helping the beginners packing up the camp, the group encountered a few waves of goblins. This was concerning since for the past few days they had been here, they hadn’t encountered many monsters at all. Now they were appearing in waves. Nobody wanted to admit it at first, but something felt wrong. The morning air was gloomy, quiet, and uncomfortable. Alarm bells went off in Mikie’s head because this was starting to feel like the weasel infested forest she was traumatized in.

“I will scout out the situation nya.” Nyanta decided after discussing the situation with the rest of the camp leaders.

“I will go too. Sun can carry me up to get a good look.”

Because the situation was unclear at the moment, it was agreed that it would be a bad idea for any one person to go off alone. Acting in a group of two would be safer. So Mikie and Nyanta went to scout the area in the air. Naotsugu and Rezarick stayed to protect the kids while they were finishing packing up camp.

 

“What the fudges…?” Mikie looked terrified of the sight she saw in the sky. Don’t mind the swear word substitutes. Mikie had been trying to tone down her swearing since she was at camp with much younger kids, and she didn’t know how much language the dragon in the egg would pick up before hatching. She didn’t want her baby dragon to hatch into the world while knowing every dirty word under the sun because of her bad habits.

_‘Danger…’_ The wind whispers around her.

“This looks bad indeed nya.” Nyanta agreed gravely.

At first the two couldn’t figure out what they were looking at. Then they both realized it was thousands and thousands of goblins marching just a mountain ridge away from where their camp was. In the dense crowd of goblins, they made out a mix of hobogoblins, trolls, orcs, and beast demons. The sheer number of goblins made Mikie’s skin crawl.

_‘War…’_ More voices, more whispers.

“They are going west, southwest direction nya.”

“I’m going fly around in the surrounding area to see where they are coming from and how many we are expecting.” Mikie said to Nyanta telepathically before urging Sun to fly around more to survey the area better. However, the more she saw, the more worried she grew. The stream of moving goblin was unending. She couldn’t track the end or the beginning of the army. There was to be at least then thousands upon thousands of them just here.

_‘Death.’_ The spirits forewarned before becoming completely silent.

_Not again. Oh no, please not again._ The hopeless sight reminded her of that day in the forest. Images of that day kept on surfacing in her mind. Feelings of dread flooded her system. Mikie felt tightness in her chest. Her breath was becoming swallow. Was Sun flying too high? Why was the air starting to feel thin? She was having trouble breathing and feeling lightheaded.

‘Snap out of it! You are about to fall off!’ Sun’s warning rang in her mind.

Mikie jolted back into the present. But the warning was too late. During her panic session, she had loosened her grip on the bird’s neck feathers and was beginning to tilt dangerous. She was also startled at Sun’s sudden voice and completely lost her balance on Sun’s back. Sun tried to catch her with his talon, but she slipped out of his gasp. She then closed her eyes and had no choice but to except what was to come.

_I don’t think I will survive this fall, but I can’t die in this world right?_ She thought grimly while she and Sun shared a horrifying look as she became airborne. But before she freefell very far, she hit something solid. How did she hit the forest floor that fast? Oh well. She will be send back to Akiba now. This was for the best. Nyanta can still tell the group what they saw.

“Miss Mikie, are you okay nya?” At some point in time, Nyanta noticed how pale and unsteady Mikie looked, and he flew his griffin close to her and Sun. This turned out to be an excellent decision on his part because without any warning, Mikie lost her balance and fell. With his quick reflexes, he caught the falling woman into his arms before she fell too far. Mikie had her eyes closed at the moment. When she opened them and looked at Nyanta with frightened eyes, it was like she was staring at something that wasn’t him. 

“L-Larry? Larry?” Mikie asked in a shaky voice while gripping tightly to Nyanta’s green coat. When she opened her eyes, she was shocked to see Larry’s face right in front of her. He looked like a grey zombie, and was covered in open wounds and blood. He looked mad and disappointed like he was silently asking why did she let him die. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to die. I’m sorry.” She mumbled repeatedly under her breath while tears started to drip down to her chin.

Along with the unfocused look, Mikie looked unnaturally pale and her skin felt cold like glass. The werecat had some idea what was going through Mikie’s mind, and he was very worried. He needed to wake her up from her hallucination fast. 

“You are safe with me nya. Focus on me for now. Come back to me Mikie nya.” He whispered softly to Mikie and pulled her into a tight one-armed hug, trying to get her to calm down. He rubbed a gloved hand on her back to wake her from her daze, and to create some heat to warm up the unnaturally cold woman. “Miss Mikie, I need you to get properly seated in the saddle nya. I can’t fly with you still in my arms like this nya.”

“N-Nyanta?” Mikie said unsurely when Larry’s face transformed into a furry cat. _Where did Larry go?_ She looked up at the cat with confused glazed over look as she shook visibility in his arms. 

“Mikie, I need you to get seated in the saddle nya. Move your right leg over the saddle so you are sitting in front of me nya.” Nyanta gently urged Mikie. Unsure what was going on at the moment, she did what she was told. When she was fully secured with one of Nyanta’s arm around her waist, Nyanta directed his griffin back to camp. “Let us go back and tell the group nya.”

“O-okay.”

 

When the two touched down to a clearing close to camp, Mikie was still shaking like a leaf in the howling autumn wind from all the old memories that she tried to suppress in her mind. Sun circled the sky above them. He was on look out for any goblins that were on scouting duty that was getting too close.

“Miss Mikie nya?” Nyanta took both of Mikie’s cold hands in his and gave them a gentle comforting squeeze.

“I-I w-will be f-f-fine.” Mikie stuttered over simple words. “Y-you n-need to tell t-them. Go a-ahead. I w-will be f-fine.”

Nyanta was still worried about his guild mate’s wellbeing, but he knew she was right. Their group needed to know what they saw up there. With one last small squeeze of Mikie’s cold hands, Nyanta quickly made his way back to camp to reported everything they saw.

After Nyanta left in a hurry, Sun landed next to Mikie.

‘Don’t ever do that again.’ Sun’s stern voice echoed.

‘Sorry. Don’t be mad?’ Mikie replied helplessly.

After a period of silence Sun lowered his giant head on Mikie’s shoulder and responded, ‘I’m not mad. I’m concerned. Are you okay?’

‘No, I will be soon I hope.’ The phoenix’s warmth spread quickly through Mikie’s body. The warmth she gladly welcomed.

 

By the time Mikie returned to camp, Naotsugu had already contacted Shiroe with the information of the current situation at camp. Serera and Isuzu had already made contact with their fellow guild mates from the coastline for information. With all the group’s members accounted for, the group moved out to meet up with Mary’s group at the school.

Late afternoon, Mikie’s group arrived at the abandoned school, the base of the summer camp. At that time, most of the groups, including Mary’s, have arrived safely. The lower level youth ran around the camp chatted with each other over water and tea. The camp leaders all were thrown into an emergency meeting in a tent upon arrival. Mikie felt awkward at the meeting; she was the only one at the meeting who has not reached level 90.

In the meeting, it was easy to see Mary felt somewhat responsible for the current situation that they were in, even though she had no control over any of this. She felt a heavy burden on her shoulder for the safety of everyone, especially the beginners, at the camp. This wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t push so hard for a summer camp. 

“It isn’t like to overthink things. Just leave it to Shiro and Henrietta-san to handle things. Even if they have to cheat, they will think of ways to get out of this.” Naotsugu was the first person to say the words that Mary really needed to hear at the moment.

“Thanks, Naotsugu-yan!” The normally cheerful woman finally cracked a smile and gave Naotsugu a big hug as a reward.

“Eh! Wait, Mary-san, stop…swimsuit…touching…!” Naotsugu flushed red and started stammering like an idiot.

“Maryele-cchi, it’s getting cold. You should change.” Nyanta said helpfully. 

This made Mary realized what she was wearing while hugging Naotsugu. Her whole body seemed to turn a shade of red from embarrassment. She quickly made her to the back of the tent, where a changing area was set up. She quickly tossed on some battle gears before showing herself again.

 

While Mary was change, a report came from outside of the tent. Mikie along with the rest of the group left the tent to look at the lights that was reported in a distance.

“Quickly! Put out all our campfires!” Naotsugu instructed everyone on site.

“…Torches nya.” Nyanta studied the moving lights in a distance.

“Goblins?” Mikie squinted her eyes, trying to get a better look of the dark specks in a distance. 

“From the looks of it, 100-150 of them?” Naotsugu roughly estimated. “Bring me a map!” 

The camp leaders all gathered around the map while people started to draw and estimate where the goblin armies were and where they were headed. It was quickly determined that this group of goblin was most likely a branch from the main army to secure resources by looting nearby villages. From the currently position and direction, it seems that they planed to attack Choushi - the small fishing town that the group had visited on their first day of camp. 

“They don’t have walls!” Minori gasped in horror when she overhead the older adventures. All the older adventures gave her a look of grief and understanding while saying nothing. “They won’t last the night if we don’t help!”

“We have to help them! We should go to Choushi.” Touya joined in to help his sister. 

“No, the risk is too great.” Mary said in a surprisingly calm voice. She spoke for all the camp leaders.

“What?” “Why!” Minori, Touya, Serara, Isuzu, and Rundelhous all objected to the camp leaders’ decision.

“We should wait for the decision of the lord’s conference. It isn’t a good idea to act on our own. Mary tried to reason with the kids. 

“What we do here will affect our relationship with the People of the Land nya.”

“I don’t want anything bad to happen to you guys.”

“There are lots low level beginners here that we have to take care.”

“We have no reason to help them.”

“Why risk death when they didn’t ask us and there are no rewards.”

“We can’t act rashly.”

“Hm. Yea. 

The camp leaders said one after another.

“Then make us the advance party!” Minori said with determination burning in her eyes.

The camp leaders looked at each other. Seeing that this group of youngsters won’t back down, they could only agree to their demands. After coming into an agreement, the 5-person group quickly left in the southwest direction towards Choushi.

 

“Miss Mikie, you look worried nya.” Nyanta commented at the expression Mikie had as she stared into the direction that the five kids had went.

“Aren’t you?” Mikie chewed on lips nervously. Her eyes never left the spot in the darkness.

“That’s why we are going after them.” Naotsugu stepped to Mikie’s left.

“Can we?” Mikie started at Naotsugu owlishly.

“You guys go after them. I will take care of things here and follow later.” Mary walked up to the group and said. “Take Shouryuu and Rezarick with you guys. It will help me feel better if they go with you. Be safe.”

After the five formed up a party, they went to catch up with the Minori’s group. Mikie put her dragon egg into her magic bag and got ready for the long night to come.

 

Along the way, Mikie’s group didn’t encounter any goblins attacks at all. This allowed them to move quickly through the forest. They did see a trail of golden coins. It made sense that the kids didn’t bother to pick up the loots because protecting Choushi was much more important than picking up items and wasting time. The coins did lead the group to a small burnt down village outside of Choushi just as Minori was giving an inspirational speech to her group about how they cannot defend Choushi and how they should be on the attack instead. Mikie was awestruck by the girl in front of her right now. Minori had grown so much just in a week. 

“Ah!” Minori noticed her and the other camp leaders after her speech.

“We are here to make sure you guys are not getting into any trouble.” Naotsugu grinned at the kids. 

Serara noticed Nyanta in an instant and rushed to his side like she hasn’t seen him for days. Touya greeted Naotsugu, his respected mentor. Minori averted her gaze from Mikie’s, afraid she will be met with a look of disapproval, or even worse, disappointment.

“Please give us permission!” Minori bowed formally while requesting permission from the older group.

“There is no need for permission, adventurers are free by nature nya. Adventures are free to work towards their goal nya…but Minori, this will be a difficult path nya.”

“It looks like all of you already make up your mind already, there is nothing we can say or do to change that.” Mikie surprised Minori with a gentle loose hug. “Now, it seems like you have a plan. How can we help?” 

Minori quickly explained her plan to lure and engage the goblins before they had a chance to get to Chousin. This way they might be able to scare the goblin away from the town or at least thin out the herd a little before they reach Chousin. Overall, it was a very well thought out plan. The five beginners worked as a team covering one side of the forest. Mikie, Naotsugu, Nyanta, Rezarick, and Shouryuu made up the main party that went directly into the heart of this splinter from the army.

 

“Will they be okay? This isn’t like the dungeons. It is a big jump for them.” Shouryuu asked while the group was taking on goblins left and right. 

“I have seen their growth in the last week. They are strong now.” Mikie said from the rear of the group with a proud smile as she thought back to their first day in the dungeon compared to what they can accomplish now as a team.

The team set up consists of Naotsugu in the front position, Shouryuu on the left, Nyanta on the right, Rezarick center, and Mikie at the rear. The idea was Naotsugu would keep the enemy at bay and take on damage while Rezarick and Mikie back up the party with heals and buffs. Nyanta and Shouryuu would be the main force to kill off any goblins groups that they encountered.

“Mikie, we have a group of 9 coming directly behind us.” Shouyruu noticed some torching light heading towards their way. Nyanta and Shouryuu already had their hands full at the moment with their own monsters, so they could only rely on Mikie to protect their healer.

“Got it! I’m going in to cut them off with Ifrit. Keep me updated with anything else.”

Mikie told Sylph to stay with the group before quickly summoned her trustworthy crimson horned wolf. He pounced on green ugly demihumans with his teeth and claws until they dropped dead with coins and blood littered on the ground. Mikie send out the lowest mana attacks she have, which was still enough to kill the goblins in two or three hits. Goblins were simply minded creatures that liked to charge straight into their enemy. This weakness made it especially easy to handle them head on. The goblins dropped like flies. With just the difference of the level gap, Mikie took care of these invaders no problem.

“You just attracted three groups of 8, 8, and 10 nya. They are coming from your 9’o clock, 11’o clock, and 1’o clock respectively nya. Remember to conserve your mana as much as you can nya. Let us know if you need help Miss Mikie nya.” Nyanta urgently reported.

“Don’t worry, Ifrit and I can do this all night. Even if I ran out of mana, I can still whack them with my staff.”

“We have a wave coming in from the front. I’m going to try to hold them off as much as I can. Rezarick and I won’t be able to help you.” Naotsugu said through telepathy before disconnecting.

Just like that, Mikie was left to deal with 26 incoming enemies on her own. But she wasn’t worried, her mana was still fairly full and she had Ifrit by her side. “We got this.” She said mostly to herself as she got into attack position.

In the dark forest that was only lit by her Magic Torch, something suddenly charged out of the bushes from both sides. Claws and teeth dug into her summon. Ifrit roared in pain as two goblins on Dire Wolves pined him down forcefully in front of Mikie. Mikie knitted her eyebrows together. She immediately recognized these goblins as different than the others. These were the goblin tamers and they were trickier to handle than just normal goblins. They are faster because of their mount, and have higher intelligent level than the normal lackeys. She quickly updated her party of the new type of goblin before disconnecting from them in preparation of battle.

“Are you okay, Ifrit?” Mikie had to first figure out how to get the two Dire Wolves to get off of Ifrit. Ifrit responds with a slight nod. _Were Dire Wolves always that big?_ Mikie stared into the glares of the wolves and the smirks of the goblins. They were daring her to get closer, giving them more of a reason to tear her apart. “Hang on, I’m going to get you out.” She reinsured Ifrit. 

First Mikie blessed herself with a quick speed song. Dire Wolves were fast, if she were going to have a fighting chance, she would have to increase her own speed too. Then, she enveloped her staff in a fiery blaze charged into the enemy in a straight line.

This attack was called the Elemental Staff Smash. With each hit, the elemental attribute of the attack was randomized. With each hit, the attack could be fire, ice, lightning, light, or darkness. Each of the different elements had a 5% chance to inflict a status on the enemy, and the chance increase to 15% at maxed level. It was an attack that most mage classes don’t even bother with because there were a lot of higher damage skills to choose from and it was too unpredictable to use. 

Many people had told her that she messed up her summoner’s point distribution during her years of playing. Instead of putting skills points into conventional skills in popular online guides, Mikie put points into skills based on their description and how useful she thought they were in the game. The people who don’t know her at all, laugh at how bad her character was. But the people who were in the same guild as her knew there was some badass in her madness. Mikie had maxed out Elemental Staff Smash for the very reason of close hand combat. Casting spells takes time, have longer cool downs, and gives the enemy a chance to interrupt spell, but Elemental Staff Smash was an instant attack and had no cool downs. She can spam that attack without worrying too much about her mana for short periods of time.

The Goblin Tamers got ready to face Mikie head on as she charged. But she disappeared from their line of sight when she jumped as high as she could and whacked both of the goblins off their mounts. With a little luck, Mike had inflicted a burn status on one of them. The goblin will continue to receive a bit of damager every 3 seconds for 30 seconds. Without their riders, the wolves went into raging frenzy. They charged at the attacker, slashing out with their poison claws.

Mikie tried to block and dodge the two wolves as best as she could, but her speed was still quite lacking compared to the wolves. As she dodged, her received some hits too. Amidst of the fight, she felt a steady beat beating within her and familiarity in her movements. Left step, right step, half turn, and then jump backwards. _Wasn’t this part of Ifrits dance ritual?_

Being even slightly distracted was deadly in battle. When she had the thought unrelated to battle, the wolves’ strikes started to hit one after another; one of the attacks even inflicted a poison status. This was bad news, because she would receive damage every 5 seconds for 1 minute or until she was dead. Status inflicted damage was useful on monsters because it ignores all defense status, but it was bad news when it hits you. Mikie will have to drink an antidote soon or the poison will take a huge chunk out of her HP. While dodging, she completely forgot about the other goblins that were still coming her way. The goblins had her surrounded with axes raised in hand.

A snarl told the goblins and wolves to back off. Ifrit jumped protectively next to Mikie and bared his teeth at them. He jumped and tore apart any goblins that decided to be brave. Mikie quickly took what little time she had to drink an antidote and a high-quality HP potion before joining Ifrit in action again.

Ifrit and Mikie moved almost like two well oiled gears in a machine. They covered for each other’s blind spot and never once got into each other’s way. For a brief moment, it was just the two of them dancing in the encirclement of goblins. And with each step, they send two or three goblins to their death. With each movement of the arms, goblin screams and jingles of coins filled the air. After the defeating the goblins and wolves with Ifrit by her side, Mikie felt pride of what she accomplished with just with her staff and her partner. The experience felt surreal. But when she looked at the corpse and blood that filled the area, she knew it wasn’t a dream.

 

Ding. There was a notification saying her closeness with Ifrit have increased by one level. 

Ding. There was another notification saying she have mastered the [Warrior’s Dance].

‘Now you are getting the hang of it.’ An unfamiliar deep voice spooked Mikie. Mikie looked around confused. Ifrit nudged her shoulder gently with his noise.

“Ifrit? I can understand you now?”

‘My name is Stolz the Proud, nice to officially meet you my summoner.’ He lowered his gaze and head into a polite bow.

“Nice to officially meet you too.” She stepped forward hugged her long time friend. “Do you know why I suddenly was able to master the dance? I mean you seen how much I suck at dancing.”

‘The dance isn’t necessary learning all the correct steps. It is more about working together as one. Be brave in battle. Be proud as a warrior. It seems like you finally understood all of that in this battle.’

“Oh. Now I have mastered it, I can’t like un-mastered it right?” Mikie asked the wolf worriedly. It had been so much of a pain to learn the dance in the beginning. She would hate it a lot if she had to relearn the lesson the hard way again if somehow she forgot it.

The wolf chuckled deeply. ‘No. The lesson will stay with you from now and forever.’

 

“Mikie, are you alright? You look terrible with all the scratches.” Shouryuu shot out of the bush after the battle had ended on Mikie’s side for a while.

“I’m fine. How did it go on your guy’s side?” In Mikie’s eyes, Shouryuu didn’t look too much better off than she did. He was also covered in superficial wounds all over.

“It wasn’t much. And guess what?” 

“What?”

“It’s morning and Chousin still stands and the goblins are retreating for now.” Shouryuu flashed Mikie a tired smile. The sun seemed to peak out from the horizon and through the trees just as Shouryuu mentioned it. Naotsugu, Nyanta, and Rezarick all gathered by Mikie and admired their handy work.

“Ah, so it is.” Mikie’s chest swelled with a sense of accomplishment and pride. Even though no one in Chousin will know what they did for the town until much later, she and the rest of them were just happy that they was able to save it and the precious lives in it.


	20. Nightmare

Mikie must have fallen asleep at some point. She couldn’t remember exactly when. All she roughly remember resting with her group in a small forest clearing by a farm, waiting for the kids so they can go to Chousin together. But, some time during the wait she fell asleep from exhaustion. She woke up to the voices of the kids and the sight of Serara pouncing on Nyanta like usual. For a moment, it seemed everything was normal.

 “You finally decided to wake up and join us in the land of the living Miss Mikie.” Nyanta said jokingly with the druid girl attached to his arm. He was the first to notice the young woman’s awakening.

Mikie must have fallen sleep in a weird position or hard surface. Her muscles felt sore and she felt dead tired inside. The details of Larry’s death and the large army of goblins plagued her dreams. Disappointedly, she felt more tired now than before she slept.

“Hm…I see you two are busy. I’m going to check in on Minori.” Mikie said plainly and left the cat and the girl alone. If she had stayed a bit longer and looked at the two, she would have seen the cat narrowed his eye in concern and the girl turned cherry red at her comment. 

Mikie was too tired. She felt like she doesn’t have enough energy to deal with the lovey dovey energy radiating off the young girl right now. Seeing them together reminded her of her time with Larry – happy. It pained her to remember Larry with the memories of his death fresh in her mind again. Even though she knew he revived and was currently somewhere in this world, it still pained her to not be with him. It was selfish of her, but it killed her to see other happy couples right now when she and her beloved can’t be together.

“How did it go?” Mikie asked Minori after she found her with Shouryuu and Rezarick. Mikie forced a small smile on her ghostly pale face with dark circles under her eyes. There was too much going on, she tried to not think about her petty feelings right now. She can sulk and cry later in the comfort of her guild room when everything was over.

“Minori was just about to give us a report. Please join us.” Rezarick said politely. He noticed the dark circle under Mikie’s eyes, but choose to ignore them. They were all tired after all.

Minori kept her report short and simple. All three adults sighed in relief that no on from her group gotten into trouble they couldn’t handle. Unexpected to Minori, Mikie pulled the younger girl into a gentle and comforting embrace. 

“You are such a brave girl. You did a good job.” Mikie whispered while patting the young girl’s hair.

“Mikie-san.” Minori’s voice wavered and eyes watered. She returned Mikie’s hug with all the feelings in her heart. She was getting emotional from the support and concern that all the adults were giving her and her group. Even though she was selfish, they still supported her every step of the way.

“Let’s return to Chousin. I can only relax after seeing it myself.” Rezarick said with a serious expression.

 The walk back to town was a silent one. Everyone was exhausted from the previous night. Mikie was having an especially bad morning. She felt sick to her stomach from the lack of rest. She could pass out any moment, but she was also afraid to sleep. She didn’t want to watch Larry die in an endless loop.

 

When they finally arrived in town by mid-day, Mary-nee greeted the group immediately upon arrival.

“Welcome back!” Mary-nee greeted the group brightly and shot an extra happy glance at Naotsugu.

After a quick greet and meet with the rest of the veteran adventurers, Mikie had a good grasp of the events that happened near town last night. It seemed like after they chased after the 5 youngers, Mary-nee led the other veterans and beginners to Chousin to defend the town from any of the goblin escaped from the two groups in the forest.

“I didn’t really have to even persuade them. All I had to do is ask. Everyone wanted to help anyways.” Mary-nee said with a fond smile when she went over the events. 

For the protection the adventures provided for the town, the Landers offered accommodations, like food and lodging, for the adventurers. It was decided people would take turns eating, washing, and sleeping. They had to sleep in turns just in case the goblins decided to come back to raid the town again.

However, when it was Mikie’s turn to sleep in the hotel. She didn’t even touch the bed. Instead of sleeping, she opted to sit by herself on a bridge that was suspended over the sea and beach. She had her feet dangling from the structure, but they were not touching the water. Her head occasionally hit the metal bar that prevented her from plummeting into the sea below as she fought off sleep. Overtime, bruises and open wounds formed on her forehead from the repeated action. She knew she was fighting a losing battle, but what can she do?

 

“What are you doing out here Mikie?” Someone asked after who knows how long after she been here. Mikie didn’t show any indication that she heard them at all. It looked like she was in a miserable state between sleeping and awake.

“Miss Mikie, you should be sleeping at the hotel right now nya.” A second voice joined. But that voice fell to deaf ears too.

Naotsugu and Nyanta shared a worried look. It was Minori that had notified the two men that Mikie was missing. The young girl saw Mikie didn’t eat much for breakfast. Being the kind hearted soul she was, Minori brought up some fresh locally grown pear to Mikie’s bedside to snack on later if she gets hungry. But Minori found Mikie’s designated room for the time slot was empty with no sign of use at all. She didn’t know what else to do other than to tell the others members of her guild to start a search party.

The woman was not responsive to the two men at all. Nyanta shared what he knew of Mikie’s physical and mental condition with the guardian, but both men were still at a lost as to how to help the woman.

“Let’s get her back to the hotel first Chief. We can decide what to do there before she gets sunburned for being out here for too long.” Naotsugu suggested.

The Nyanta and Naotsugu pulled Mikie gently off the edge of the bridge and on to Nyanta’s back. It was easier for the werecat to carry Mikie because Naotsugu was still dressed in heavy armors. To both of their surprise, Mikie didn’t put up any resistance to their man handling. They expected to her snap out of her daze and snap at them because they knew the woman hated to be man handled.

 

Once Mikie was put in bed, Naotsugu went to let the other guild members know that Mikie was found and now tucked in bed. Nyanta decided to keep watch in the room just incase the woman decide to wonder off again.

For Mikie, the whole experience felt like an out of body experience. She was aware of all the things happening to and around her – like being carried and tucked into bed – but she felt like her body was made out of lead and couldn’t say or do anything. Currently, she was lying on her back with her head slightly tilted towards the window. She stared out to the lights dancing on the ocean’s surface.

“Miss Mikie, try to get some sleep nya.” She felt a hand pat her head gently. 

‘I can’t. I’m scared to close my eyes.’ Besides a slight downward cast of her eyes, Mikie shook her head lightly and didn’t make any other movement. She felt exhausted physically and mentally to the point where she was ready to black at any time. She actually hoped if she blacked out, maybe there wouldn’t be any dreams and memories floating around in her head. But, right now she was just in a state of tiredness and misery.

“I know you are scared nya. But I will remain here until you wake up, so please try to get some sleep while you can nya.” 

Mikie felt a hand stroking her hair gently and another hand grasp one of her own. The gesture made her turn head to finally acknowledge the were-cat who sat in the chair by her bed comforting her. 

‘Promise?’ Mikie wanted to ask. She opened her mouth to ask but no sound came out. When was the last time she drank or ate anything? Her throat was so dry that it felt like sandpaper.

“I promise I will still be here when you wake up nya. I will be your anchor. I will hold your hand so you will know what is real and what is just a dream nya.” Somehow Nyanta read her mind again. 

Finally, Mikie decided to close her eyes. She was still scared, but the occasional small squeeze Nyanta gave her let her know he was still here. She was comforted by the human touch even though she still saw memories of the Briar Weasel filled forest and the view of the giant goblin army from the sky in her mind. She wasn’t as terrified now because Nyanta’s grip on her hand reminded her those were just memories. Eventually her mind slowed down and sleep finally overtook her.

 

Mikie was fairly sure she was dreaming. She was sure Briar Weasels couldn’t run through her, even in this fantasy world. From her spot, she watched the events of Briar Weasel forest play out in a third person point of view. It was weird to stand there and watch another you acting exactly like you. The event moved around her. She didn’t even have to walk or run after the party of people to follow them through the whole event.

After she watched herself race to the fairy rings, the scenery changed. From standing in the hills, she was now floating in an ominous sky above the army of marching goblins. The scene then fast-forwarded to last night’s battle in the forest surrounding Chousin.

Then from the forest she was plunged into the sea. Mikie panics and tried to hold her breath, in fear of drowning. But when she couldn’t hold her breath anymore, she found out she could breath just fine and was not wet at all. The dream was taking an odd turn. In the beginning, it was just clipping together the worst events she had to face while in this world, but she never fell into the ocean here. She wasn’t sure where the dream was pulling the images. In the deep waters, she heard a faint lovely voice singing a panicked melody. It seemed whoever was singing was getting close because the song was getting louder. 

Finally Mikie was able to get a good look at the singer, and she looked a lot like Siren, the mermaid songstress. There was fear and panic on the purple mermaid’s usual calm and carefree face.

“Siren?” Mikie was surprised that her voice came out like normal under water. 

Siren must have recognized her too. She grabbed Mikie’s hand and swam with all her strength.

_‘Run. Monsters. Many. Hurry.’_ Siren’s lip doesn’t move but her voice sounded in Mikie’s mind.

Mikie looked in the direction where they were escaping. From the dark water, she saw red eyes; a lot of blue finned monsters with red eyes chased after them. The blue fish like goblins swam in large numbers towards them with tridents in hand. No matter how desperate Siren swam, the ugly blue goblins were faster. Soon enough, the blue goblins were upon them and ready to stab them with their tridents. Mikie screamed as the tridents were about to stab both of them.

 

“Miss Mikie!”

Mikie felt someone violently shook her by the shoulders. The images from under the ocean disappears as she cracked opened her heavy lids. The first thing she noticed was the roomed was filled with a beautiful mixture orange and purple color from the sinking sun. It was already sunset. She had slept away most of the day. That would have meant that she had taken other people’s time slot to use the room.

The second thing she noticed was something furry with cat ears standing over her. ‘Mimi.’ Strangely, her cat’s name was the first thing that came to mind and went to touch those ears. Mimi will scratch her, but she will deal with the wounds with when it comes to that. Then she realized the furry creature was wearing green clothing. “Nya-Nyanta.” She realized out loud. 

“Mikie, are you okay? We heard your screams.” Mary-nee rushed into the room with Naotsugu. The rest of her guild member and Serara all slowly filed into the small room one by one, each asking about her wellbeing in their own way as they arrived.

Mikie nodded dumbly at all the people in the room. She was screaming in her dreams. That would help explain why her throat felt like it was so raw. “Wa…water.” A voice nothing like her voice croaked out. Speaking hurts a lot right now, her throat felt like the Sahara Desert.

Nyanta diligently poured a glass water and hands the glass to her. But she dropped the glass with her trembling hands and the water spilt everywhere. It was quite amusing how everyone in the room moved towards to in that moment to try to help in an almost slow motion fashion. Nyanta, who was the closest to her, caught the fallen glass with his quick reflexes. But even he couldn’t do so while keeping all the water in the glass. Strange, why hadn’t she noticed her shaking hands until now?

There was a moment of silence in the room before everyone voiced out their concerns. Mikie raised a hand to stop everyone talking at once; everyone was really loud. Nyanta poured another glass of water. This time, he held the glass to help her drink the water. Man, who knew simple water could taste so good. Her throat felt much better already, but definitely not back to 100%.

“I’m okay.” Ah, her voice actually sounds like her own. “Sorry I took too long in the room.”

Everyone told her not to worry about it. They all told her rest more and offered her to bring things into her room: water, food, blankets. With a lot of assurances that she was fine and don’t need anything at the moment, people finally left to go on patrols or their current assigned post for look out for any more goblin attacks. The night was nearing; everyone was on high alert for the possibility of another night invasion.

 

“What’s the status?” Mikie asked once the youngster all left. It was just four older adventures left in the room. Mary-nee, Naotsugu, Nyanta, and Mikie.

The other three quickly updated Mikie on the information they have received from Shiroe earlier in the day before leaving to do their part to protect the village. Unconsciously, Mikie stared out at the ocean from the small window again. The good news was help was on the way via sea, but they ship is still a day out. Now the adventures can see the light in the end of the tunnel, but why does Mikie have an unexplainable bad feeling in her gut that something bad will happen. Was it because of the weird dream she had or was it something else? Those red eyes from her dream still unnerved her. Once in a while, she thought she saw multiple pairs of red eyes shone from the sea from the corner of her eyes. But when she turned to look more careful, it was just her eyes playing tricks on her. She hoped the dream wasn’t a bad omen.

‘We have to prepared for the worse.’ Mikie solidified her decision. From everything she have seen and experienced, it seems like everything that can happen in the worse way possible will usually do. Nature favored disorder over order. That is just one of the many laws of physics of her world, and it seems to be also the law of this world. 'I have to to become stronger. No, I will become stronger for everyone too.' With one last glare out of the windows, Mikie rose from her bed and dressed for battle.


	21. Berskerker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter freshly typed up today and couldn't wait to share this new chapter with you all.

The night in Chousin was calm, but all the adventurers were on edge. Everyone hoped that the no more monsters would show up and they were only overly cautious, but everyone all were aware to some point that this was more like the calm before the storm.

As predicted, a trio of beginningers ran back to the city reporting white foam approaching rapidly via the dark water. Damn it, it was just as everyone feared. The water would be both their downfall and savoir. The boat won’t be arriving until the morning, but they would need to hold out on their own until then.

 

When Mikie stepped out of the lodging, all the adventures were already gathering up close to the beaches. All of them are running, yelling, preparing for the inevitable battle that was soon upon them. Once all the adventures were gathered around Maryele, finding her guild mates were not that difficult either. It was the first time that she was thankful that Naotsugu stood out in his bulky armors, and Nyanta was stood at least one head above everyone else.

Maryele was half way through her inspirational speech when Mikie was finally able to make her way to Naotsugu and Nyanta in the front of the crowd.

“Mikie.”

“Miss Mikie, nya.”

The two men were surprised to see Mikie up and running around after she seemed traumatized just hours before.

“Add me to the party.”

“Is that a good idea?” Rezarick was the one to voice this concern. He was completely hidden behind Naotsugu and Nyanta before, so Mikie didn’t notice him there at all.

“Is it a good idea for me to fight without a healer and tank?” Mikie raised on eyebrow. “I’m going out there either way.”

“Welcome back.” Naotsugu quickly send a party invite Mikie’s way and gave her a friendly pat on the back.

“Nya.” If you looked closer, even Nyanta smiled a different smile than normal.

“This is the final battle, please lend me your strength…I believe everyone can do it, yeah! Let’s go! Move out!”

After Maryele yelled the final words, Naotusgu lead the party, which consisted of Nyanta, Rezarick, Shouryuu, and Mikie, down to the coastlines.

 

When Mikie and the rest of the adventures arrived at the coastlines, they were immediate met with numerous Sahuagin from the waters. Sahuagin were ugly blue fish like creature that have finned limbs and used a trident or twin blades as a weapon. Their levels ranged between low 20s to high 40s. For the higher level adventures, these goblins of the waters wouldn’t normally be a problem at all. But there were thousands of them to be dealt with. Lasting out the whole wave posed serious problems because adventures were limited on the amount of HP and MP they possess.

In the end, it was decided that each of the party would take turns taking a 10-minute break as needed. With the rotation method, it would help greatly to recover the party’s HP and MP. With limited amount of resources, this was the only thing that could be done to last the night.

Naotsugu was the tank and shield of the group while Rezarick was the healer. Nyanta and Shouryuu both rushed out killing multiple Sahuagins in a few strikes. Mikie, on the other hand, was at a type disadvantage when attacking. Her main attackers were all of the fire elements, rest of her summons were supports and do not have a strong attacks.

The Sahuagin were of the water elements, so any fire damage would be halved. With summons already only at 1/3 of their original strength, plus another half due to typing disadvantage, Mikie only really had one option. She could only play as a supporter and summon Stolz to deal physical damage. Even with limited options, Mikie won’t give up any chances.

“Sylph, enchant everyone’s status with your blessing. Stolz, I’m counting on you in the front lines!” Mikie summoned the two with a shout.

In a blind of an eye, the wind fairy arrived and dusted everyone in the party in some fairy dust. Her giant fire wolf ran past her to join the fray with the main attackers. With physical attacks, status enhancements, and the level advantage, it just might be enough.

After four hours into battle, Mikie’s group had to take a break 3 times. Their potions had already been greatly depleted. Besides using among in their own group, they had been giving to other parties that had already ran out of HP and MP potions. Mikie really wished the sun would soon rise to signal the arrival of help.

 _We just had just last until dawn_. Mikie thought as she petted Stolz’s head. Her ever so loyal wolf rested by her legs resting while she sipped on a vial of tasteless high-grade blue potion. There was no point of recalling Stolz back into his spirit form to rest because he recovered at the same rate either way. It would just be a waste of MP and cool down time if she recalled him.

While she rested, she listened in on Naostugu and Nyanta’s conversation. They chatted about the growth of Minori, Touya, Isuzu, Rundelhous, and Serara. The most impressive of the bunch was definitely Minori. She was the one who was controlling the flow of the battle, the one most like Shiroe according to the two men. Mikie had not yet been in battle with Shiroe; but the stories she had heard about the strategist of the Tea Party, he sounded like an unbelievable individual.

Just as Mikie’s party rested only for 5 minutes, screeching sounds came from the forest and everyone’s heart dropped. Serara had set up an alarm system by using her skill [Shriker Echo] in the forest beforehand just in case some goblin might try to sneak into town when they were busy at the beach. They were hoping that the goblins weren’t smart enough to plan this out, but it seems in this reality, they were capable of planning and making smart decisions.

“We will go teacher!”

“Take care of this place! Please!”

“Move out team!”

“Wait Rudy!”

“Um…Good luck to you too Nyanta!”

All the kids ran past the resting area one by one, heading towards where the alarms sounded.

“They will be okay, nya.” Nyanta puts a hand on Mikie’s head.

Mikie didn’t realize she had a worried expression as she watched them run into the distance

“We need to protect this place like they asked.” Naotsugu, who was the most tired out of everyone in the party, suddenly stood up with renewed energy.

 

The coastline was wide, to cover all of the sandy area, adventures had to constantly run up and down the area to make sure no Sahuagin would find a weak spot to break through. There were only a limited number of adventures, and everyone was already stretched really thin. With Minori’s party leaving the area, everyone else had to cover even more area. It was only a matter of time now when the Sahuagins will break through.

As Mikie and her party mates rejoined the battle for over 15 minutes, some of the adventures became overwhelmed and got overrun.

“Help!” A 30 something samurai yelled when a mob of level 40 something Sahuagins surrounded him and started to attack with their weapons.

After the samurai, who was the acting attacker and tank in that team got overwhelm, the Sahuagin broke through and started attacking the healers and supporters in the low level group too. At this rate, those beginners would perish and be send back to the cathedral. Then there would even more less adventures to defend the beach and more adventures would die. It was a vicious cycle!

“I’m going to help! We can’t lose more people here. Stolz, this way!” Mikie yelled to her party before dashing towards the direction of the party in trouble. Everyone else had their hands full right now, only Mikie felt like she was expendable at the moment to help.

“Mikie, no!” Rezarick was the first to notice because he stood the closest to her behind Naotsugu.

When everyone else had noticed, Mikie was already more than half way to the breach.

“Stolz, go! I will support you with magic attacks.”

Stolz ran ahead after he received his orders. He pounced into the mess and rescued the cleric and supporters, since they had paper-thin defenses. The samurai would last a bit longer at least if the cleric and other supporters lived.

“Elemental Bolt!” Mikie send a stream of energy orbs towards the blue fish monsters, trying to get them off the samurai.

And that worked! It definitely had attracted the attention of those fish heads. But, that might have worked a bit too well. She had argoed all the monsters in this area onto herself since she was the highest-level person in the immediate area.

“Uh oh.” Mikie noticed her mistakes too late.

 

Two dozens of Sahuagins charged at her. She used Elemental Bolts and Elemental Staff Smash as best as she can to reduce the numbers. But one falls another just takes it’s place. Even with close to 40 levels difference, the sheer number of the Sahuagins overtook her. Despite her struggles, she was forced into a defensive position. At one point, she blocks a trident from a overgrown fish with her Ancient Staff. During the struggle, her wooden staff snapped in half.

 _Crap, I didn’t have time to check my weapons durability before the fight._ Mikie realized her staff’s durability must have hit zero, thus breaking. What terrible timing it was too.

Mikie’s heart dropped to her stomach. Without a weapon, she couldn’t attack and only could take the endless blows. Once Stolz time runs out, she won’t be able to summon him again without equipping a staff. She can’t equip another weapon until she was out of battle either. She was out of luck and options. The only thing awaits her now was death in this world and be reborn in to the cathedral in Akiba. It will be nice to get away from all this…but there will be nothing waiting for her back there. Shiroe and Akatusi were both away still. Minori, Touya, Naotsugu and Nyatan were here, still fighting. No how dare her abandon her friends! How can she be a coward when everyone else was out risking their lives still?!

 _Don’t give up!_ Stolz howled.

“Thanks for the reminder friend! I am not going down without a fight. I still have my fists! Taste my fists of fury!” Mikie yelled as she punched a fish in its giant face. As expected, the monster wasn’t even phased at all. She probably did 1 damage. But 1 damage was still damage, she will keep on trying until her death!

 _That’s the spirit!_ Stolz yelled in encouragement.

 

In that moment she could hear her heart pumping so hard that she could hear her own heartbeat in her ears. With the heartbeat, she could hear music. For the first time, she could understand the lyrics to the Warrior’s War Song. It was a song of battle and conquests. Almost like a trance, she sang along with the song perfectly while she dealt punches to her enemies.

Without her noticing, Mikie’s fists started to glow as she sang, and she was actually dealing significant more amount of damage than before. By the end of the song, she had cleared the mob of Sahuagins that once surrounded her.

Mikie also looked completely different to everyone else. She was dressed from head to town in animal pelts. Her hands looked awfully like familiar to Stolz’s giant paws. For lack of better description, she looked a berserker class character with giant red wolf paws for weapons.

“Stolz?” Mikie asked. She looked around the clearing for her friend, but Stolz was not there and he didn’t answer.

“Mikie?”

Shouryuu and Nyanta had seen the number of Sahuagins piled on the woman. They rushed over to her as fast they could after they were finished with their own enemies. But it seemed like their worries were unnecessary?

“Have you seen Stolz? His summon time shouldn’t be up. He is not responding at all.” Mikie asked worriedly

She opened up her mental gaming menu to check on Stolz’s status. Did his HP hit zero during battle? When the game like interface opened, Mikie was in for a big surprised. Everything has changed: her status, abilities, and skills. 

Her status point distribution had completely flip-flopped. Her HP and ATK had increased, but her MP and INT had decreased. Instead of her regular magic attacks and summon skills, she now have taunts, physical boost skills, plain physical attacks, and fire elemental physical attacks. All her attacks were close range instead of long range. It almost seemed like her class had changed. It looks now her paws were her weapons. She no longer needs a staff to attack. Her physical damage now should be on par with any of the warrior classes around the same level.

“Are you okay Miss Mikie, nya?”

Nyanta didn’t have his normal smile on his face. Something must be really wrong. Mikie thought. When Nyanta put a comforting hand her head, she noticed for the first time that from the corner of her eyes, she could see two objects protruding out the sides of her head. She felt these two objects with her hands. It was horns!

“It almost looks like you fused with your Ifrit summon.” Shouryuu said about examining her appearance.

Now he mentioned, Mikie did notice there seem to be a timer counting down in the corner her mental gaming interface. 13 minutes and 11 seconds left.

“I’m on a timer. We will have to figure this out later.” Mikie punched her wolf paw knuckles together before using a skill called [Wild Instincts]. It boosted her speed and attack even more.

 

Fifteen minutes, that’s more than enough time to get rid of a bunch of these ugly fish faces. Mikie raced down the water lines punching, ripping, and slashing any Sahuagins she could reach.

In the last 30 seconds, Mikie decided to release everything in one go.

“Berserker mode!”

A burst of red energy surrounds her, boosting her attack and speed even more, but it also depletes her stamina faster than usual during the period too. Mikie killed and slaughtered until fish corpses lingered everywhere. The feeling of slashing flesh open and ripping throats out didn’t make Mikie feel sick to her stomach. Instead, she welcomed it at the moment. Her mind was in a frenzy. In this moment, she wanted more death, more blood, and more destruction!

3…2…1. The time on the timer ran out. The transformation on Mikie broke, and Mikie returned back to her old, weaponless self. She felt weak after the transformation. All of her strength left her body, and she collapsed on to the sand. It looked like she ran out of stamina and the only thing on her mind right now was sleep. For once in a while, she fell into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To Mickychi: thank you for your comment. I'm glad you are enjoying the story thus far.


	22. Where is Home?

When Mikie woke up, she was in a dark room but on a comfy bed. For a moment, she thought she woke up in her room in the real world. She thought of this because it was loud outside. She was used to many noises while she slept because in the real world, she lived in a busy part of a downtown. For the better or the worse, noise was a constant part of her life. Sometimes it made her feel just a little less lonely, and other times she couldn’t bear with it.

When she was clearer headed, she realized she was not back in the real world, but was in a bed on a ship. She knew it was a ship because she could hear the waves crashing on the metal body and could feel the slight rocking of the ship as the wave hit it. The room was mostly empty and dark, the only source of light was coming through the small space under the door and moonlight from the small circle window on the wall. She saw people's shadows passing by the door and heard footsteps of people scattering about. Could this be the help that they have been waiting for? Have they won yet? Mikie decided that she had to go and check out the battlefield no matter how drained she felt and how painful her head was.

When she opened the metal door, the bright corridor lights instantly blinded her. She hissed like a creature of the night and winced at how much worse it made her headache feel.

“Ah, you are awake!” Someone she didn’t recognize or know ran up to her. From the way this adventure was dressed, she was a Cleric class. “Take it easy. You were in bad shape when they brought you here.”

“Where is everyone going?” Mikie didn’t care about her condition right now. There was a battle to be fought and won right now. She quickly checked her inventory and equipped another staff. The Wizard Staff was a level 50 staff that Mikie still had from a long time ago. She was now glad that she never had the chance to sell it or give it to a lower level adventure.

“The two veteran adventures who brought you here are shuttling everyone from the ship to town on the deck. They have griffins! Griffins! How cool is that? I hope it will be my turn soon.”

 

Mikie followed the crowd of people up to the open deck. Just as the random stranger had told her, Naotsugu and Nyanta were both busy picking up and dropping off adventures one at a time from the ship to shore. While on deck, she could already see there were already many new adventures joining the fight and the small lander town was still standing. It was easy to see all the summoned monsters stationed all around the boarders of the town. Mikie knew the battle was pretty much won. It was going to be a matter of time. However, that doesn’t mean that she or anyone else should be slacking or careless. Who knows how much smarter the monster have became after the world had changed. They were smart enough to group together and split their forces to attack by land and sea, so who knows what other strategy they were capable of.

Mikie joined the mass of people moving towards Naotsugu and Nyanta. She could have summoned Sun and take the phoenix to town, but that was a giant waste of MP when MP potions were considered very precious during the battle.

“Hey Naotsugu, Nyanta, give this girl a ride back to town?” Mikie asked causally once she made it to the front of the line.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, you should rest up here Mikie.” Naotsugu said with a small smile on his lips.

“I took a little nap. I feel much better now. Mikie ready to report back for battle.” Mikie replied lightheartedly.

“Don’t you think you have done enough helping tonight, Miss Mikie, nya?” Nyanta said in a biting tone that greatly surprised Mikie

Mikie looked into the cat’s eyes and saw there was no warmth in them. He was really mad. She stared up to the werecat on the back of a griffon like he was complete stranger. The friendly Nyanta that Mikie had come to known for the past few months was not here. This was almost like a completely different person in the same body. Instead of the warm greeting that she expected, Nyanta’s words slapped her in the face and stunned her.

“Wh-what do you mean? I thought I helped.” Mikie’s voice cracked under the harsh glare and the accusation. She could feel all the other adventures looking onto the conversation, curious to see what all the hold up was about in the front of the line.

Mikie did not enjoy being at the center of attention at all. Even at her own engagement celebration, it was only consisted of a handful of close family members and friends in a private setting. Being in the middle of an awkward situation with so many pairs of strangers’ eyes watching made her feel very uncomfortable.

“You didn’t help anyone by acting so carelessly tonight Miss Mikie, nya.”

“Chief, that’s a bit-” Whatever Naotsugu tried to say was cut off by the strangely acting Nyanta.

“It would be for the best if you stayed here and out of the way, nya.”

Mikie knew this wasn’t a request from Nyanta. This was a command that left no room for argument. Mikie felt emptiness in her heart and a feeling of abandonment from Nyanta’s words. With nothing left to say and no face left to stand in front of the two veteran adventures, Mikie turned around and walked away shamefully. She did her best to held back the tears that threatened to leak out. All the adventures, who had watched from the side, parted for her as she walked through the crowd and watched her walk away.

Mikie was confused to what she did to deserve such raw anger from the usual kind gentleman in the group. But she couldn’t think of anything. She felt confused, sad, and hurt. Hadn’t she saved the group adventures on the beach before she passed out? What had she done wrong?

Mikie could feel her flight response kicking in in full throttle. Feeling like she couldn’t bear with the atmosphere and stares from all the adventures on the ship, Mikie decided to use ‘Call of Home’ to leave this place. It was made very clear to her that she was not wanted or needed here, so what was the point of staying then.

In a flash of light, the scene of the dark ocean was replaced by the familiar view of the guildhall in Akiba. Standing in front of the tall building, Mikie felt small. All the windows were dark, signaling no one was in there. This was the place she had called home. Home. That word seems foreign on her tongue. In this moment, Mikie didn’t feel that she belonged here. Feeling dark and lonely, she took out her dragon egg and hugged it close to her body. Turning her back to the guildhall, she walked towards Akiba using her dimly glowing dragon egg as a light source.

Mikie hated the dark. She had always hated the darkness because it scared her since she was young. You never know what could come out and grab you in the dark. Darkness was often accompanied by loneliness. She hated the loneliness too. Humans are social creatures after all.

 

When Mikie walked to the center of the town, it was close to midnight already. As Mikie strolled her way through town, she noted the difference between the town now versus when she first arrived in Akiba. The town was better lit compared to the dimly lit streets before. There were a lot more shops all around Akiba for food, clothing, shoes, and other various things. So many things have changed, but the biggest change was how much safer and happier everyone in town was now.

Mikie knew that many shops were closed because it was late at night and many adventures had also volunteered to fight the goblin armies. But her mind was playing tricks on her at the moment, making her think that the shops were closed and adventures were sparse because she was unwanted.

The more Mikie walked aimlessly around town, the more she felt like she didn’t belong. In the end, her feet took her out to the outskirts of Akiba and to the spot that she arrived by accident the first night she was here. The night where she met some dangerous people and almost got kidnapped. Mikie sat on the root of the tree, holding her dragon egg, and reminisced.

Mikie missed home. No, not Big Apple. Not the virtual adventure town. She missed her home in the real world. She missed her tiny apartment that she pays way too much for a month. She missed her parents. She missed her two adorable dogs and her devil cat. She missed everything that she woke up to and took granted every single day.

 

Tonight, the sky was clear, the moon was bright, and the night was quiet. Across the pond and the forest beyond, lighting bugs danced. Compared the to the bitter battlefield Mikie was just on hours before, this was paradise. In this moment, there was no monster attack, no fighting, no screams of adventures, no blood, and only tranquility. The silence helped Mikie think, maybe even overthink.

Time had flown by, things had changed, but the one thing that didn’t change was she doesn’t belong here. Of course she didn’t belong here or Akiba. She was not an adventure from Akiba, or even the Japanese server. She had gotten too comfortable and content with her current way of life that she had forgotten what she needed to do. She needed to return to Big Apple in the America Server. She needed to find Larry. She needed to find a way home.

Elder Tale was based on the Half Gaia Project. What was half of the distance between Tokyo, Japan to New York, USA? How fast can Sun fly and how long was Sun’s Summon time? Mikie ran the numbers in her head over and over again.

The more she thought about things, she more depressed she became. She curled up into a fetal possible with the egg between her torso and legs, and cried like she did on her first night here. Her warm tears dripped down her chin like a downpour onto the egg. In this lovely evening, Mikie could not find peace and balance within her heart. All she could think about was how cold the world felt.

In her moment of sadness and despair, invisible presences surrounded her to comfort her and warm her.

‘Don’t cry…cry…’

‘Everything will be okay…okay…okay…’

'Hush...hush...hush...'

'Don't cry...'

The voices of her summons whispered in her ears and eventually lured her to sleep.

 

“Hey, what are you doing here out here woman?”

A rough shake woke up Mikie from her slumber. She had fallen asleep while crying at some point of the night. When Mikie looked at the person, she noticed that it was still deep into the night. After squinting her eyes, she finally made out the stranger in black armor illuminated under the silver moonlight.

“Isaac.” Mikie acknowledged.

“What kind of idiot falls asleep out here? Good thing my guild was passing through here and noticed. Go back to your guild and sleep there.” Isaac had an annoyed expression on his face. It was late. All he wanted to do after a long day of raiding was to go back to his guild and rest.

“Hmm.” Mikie hummed and looked away from the man.

“Go home or go to a hotel woman. You will catch a cold here.” Isaac said with a scold.

Isaac was a brute, but was not a heartless man. He noticed something was amiss with the usual female he found to be way too perky and annoying. Now he had think about it, didn’t Rezarick say Mikie was with him at the summer training camp? He even had reporting from other members there about goblin invasions in that area. So why was she here all of a sudden? Had she died and got send back here? That would make the most sense. But he chose not to ask or comment on the topic because he had learned from many past experiences that if the other party wanted to talk about they would open up. By asking before the other party was ready to talk was only inviting trouble.

“Yea.” Mikie mumbled, but did not move. She waited for the man to leave her too like everyone else currently in her life.

All the humming and mumbling was driving Isaac nuts. In his mind, if you wanted to say something, speak loudly and clearly. With a heavy sign, Isaac reached out and forced Mikie to her feet by the arm.

“What are you doing?” Mikie yelled in surprise as she struggled to get loose.

“I’m taking you back to your guild. I’m sure I will get an earful from a number of people if they found out I purposely left you out here.”

“I know how to get back by myself! I don’t need your help.”

“Oh? Then tell me, which direction should you go to your guild hall?” Isaac questioned.

“Of course it’s…it’s that way!” Mikie pointed into the distance.

“Ahaha. If you wanted to walk further away maybe.” Isaac laughed arrogantly.

She felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment in the cool night. In that moment, Mikie realized Isaac was right, she actually didn’t know how to get back to her guild from here. During the time she had been in Akiba, she never spent any time getting to know the city at all. Mikie only knew of the few streets where she and Nyanta usually frequently for their shopping. If she somehow made it back to one of those streets, she might have a chance of finding her way back. But being in an unfamiliar place in the dark, the chances of her finding her way back was extremely low.

“Men. Head back first. I will be accompanying this lost woman back.” Isaac ordered the group of people waiting behind him.

The group walked silently behind Isaac after receiving their orders. They had recognized Mikie the moment they saw the glowing dragon egg. There was only one person in Akiba that owned a dragon egg after all. Between what they have observed between the two’s interactions and the rumors running through the town, everyone in the guild knew that Isaac had taken certain interest in this woman. It would be not wise to interfere.

“You know you just restarted some unfounded rumors that I have been waiting to die out.” Mikie shot Isaac a tired look, but the effect of the look was lost on the guardian.

“Why do you care so much what others think or say about you?” Isaac was an arrogant man who lived how he liked and cared little about other’s opinion.

“Shouldn’t you care a bit more oh one the great leaders of the Round Table?” Mikie shot a question back for a question.

“People have an intimidating image of me, and I’m okay with that. Let’s get you back to your guildhall. It’s safer around town, but you still shouldn’t be out alone so late.

“I don’t want to go back there. Can you be my bodyguard for the night and just stay out here with me? I can pay you a fee for your services if you like.” Mikie looked up to Isaac with hopeful eyes.

A light bulb seemed to go off in Isaac’s head. Sure he was a muscle head, but that doesn’t mean he was without a brain like rest of them. It seemed like he had found the source of the problem. He deducted that Mikie had a falling out with her guild, but he was never good at dealing at this type of situation either. Most people he had a falling out with in the guild, he would just kick them out by using his guild master abilities.

“I can stay for the night, but I’m not cheap to hire just to let you know.”

“You make it sound like I’m hiring you as a male prostitute or something.” Mikie belched at the idea and Isaac laughed in amusement.

“Come Woman. Let us drink the rest of the night away. I know a bar that is still open.”


	23. Who is your Daddy?

The night of drinking ended surprisingly well for Mikie. She drank responsibility as oppose to the man who had invited her to bar. She had nursed the one drink she had ordered all night. Isaac on the other hand had chugged down so many drinks until he had fallen asleep in the bar. In the end, she had to pay for all the drinks, pay a room upstairs for the night, and hire a few people help her to get the bulky man in armors upstairs.

After making sure, Isaac was settled in as best as he could while still in his armors, Mikie headed back to her guild. By the time she left the bar, the sun was already peaking through the horizon. The bar was located in a familiar part of town, so Mikie easily found her way back to the guild. When Mikie got back to her room in the guildhall, she tossed her staff somewhere in a random corner and immediately fell asleep fully clothed while hugging her precious egg close. She didn’t care the day was only beginning outside; she only knew that she was tired and wanted to sleep.

 

Mikie didn’t know how long she was asleep before, but she felt well rested and energized when she woke up. She stretched and yawned when she got out of bed. When the weight of the bed shifted, a small groan from someone else came from under the blankets.

 _What?_ Mikie questioned as she stared at the unknown sleeping person in her bed.

She was pretty sure she had left Isaac at the inn and came home alone. The size of the figure was too small a grown man anyways. So who the hell was in bed with her then? Alarm bells went off in her head. An intruder had gotten into the guild while everyone was away. The only good thing was the intruder seemed to be still sleeping, so the element of surprise was still hers.

Carefully picking up the staff she had tossed aside last night, she lifted the blankets off the hidden figure. To her surprised there was a butt naked young infant was curled up under her blankets. The sleeping infant was pale and had a head of white fuzz a slight blue hue. Oddly enough, there was also an ice like crystal embedded in its forehead. Mikie closed her eyes and rubbed her temple to clear her mind. This had to be some sort of illusion or a prank. When she opened her eyes the kid was there and now awake. Oh my, had she kidnapped a child last night from the bar or town?

Mikie shut her eyes and tried her hardest to remember the events from last night. She went to the bar with Isaac and only had one drink – no baby then. He got drunk and she did not – still don’t remember seeing a baby. She got the man into the rented room – nope still no kid in her memories. Up to the point of her getting into bed, there was still no child in her memories. So where did he come from? Honestly, she could not remember.

 

While Mikie was sorting out her thoughts, the infant had woken up. It stared at Mikie with delighted icy blue eyes and smiled. Strange enough, the child was gender neutral. When it moved to the edge of the bed, Mikie couldn’t help to notice it lacked both parts to be a female or a male. This human looking child was not human.

Was this a cuckoo bird scenario? Someone or something, like an alien, put their young with other female’s bed so they don’t have to raise their own young? Or maybe in this world, the method of reproduction was different? Maybe in this world, when a female and male go to a bar and drink together, poof a kid pops out of nowhere? The more Mikie thought about it, the more it started to sound like insanity.

“Mama.” It said with big puppy like eyes and lifted up its arms to be picked up.

“What was that kid?” Mikie took a step back in offense. Whose kid was this? Why was it calling her mom? She was 1400% sure she never had a kid in this world, the other world, or any other world for the matter.

“Mama.” The infant babbled again and smiled up her. Then a big animalistic growl came from its little tummy that surprised Mikie. “Hungry.”

“Okay.” Mikie was still not sure where the kid came from, but she still had to feed it if it was hungry. She wasn’t going to starve the kid that would be child abuse. She gingerly wrapped a thin blanket around the child and picked it up. Even if it was a young babe, it was not going to be going around the house naked. The child was delighted to be finally picked up, but less happy when he was wrapped.

“Too warm.” The kid tried to struggle out of the makeshift cloth.

Mikie immediately noticed was the child’s felt cold, much colder than a normal infant should be, when she picked it up. She wondered if it wasn’t covered up enough when it slept here last night or maybe it was sick. She felt its forehead and pulled her hand back immediately. The crystal on its forehead was like dry ice. It was so cold that it burned her hand.

“Mama, don’t likie.” The child whined and pulled at the blanket with his uncoordinated fingers.

Mikie noticed another strange things about the child. The child seemed to be growing up literally in front of her eyes. From the time she discovered it to making her way into the kitchen, the child seemed to have grown from an infant to a young child. It also seemed able to say more words and make sentences now.

“Stop calling me Mama. You will be dressed in this household if you want to stay.” Mikie said sternly as she carried the child that she estimate around 2 to 3 years old now to the kitchen to look for food. Did they even have milk? It has been at least a week since anyone had been in the guild. Mikie wasn’t sure if there was anything suitable to feed the kid.

“But Mama is Mama.” The child furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

 

“Can you eat this?” Mikie asked and put down some freshly cut orange slices in front of the child to suck on.

Like Mikie suspected, the kitchen was low on food supply. They had used up most of the supplies before they left to make sure nothing was going to spoil. Anything they couldn’t use up, Nyanta probably packed in his bag of holding.

The young child eyed the orange slices strangely. Mikie picked up one and showed it was fine to put into the mouth. The kid copied Mikie’s action; it seemed to trust Mikie a lot for some reason.

“Yuck!” The kid made a grimacing face and stuck out its tongue.

Thinking maybe the orange was just too sour, Mikie tried some other fruits with the kid. But the kid made the same face fruit after fruit. Mikie was starting to think it was just a picky eater now. What else was sweet that she can feed the kid?

Mikie remembered there was still some ice cream in the freeze. It was dairy based, sweet, had a lot of calories, and no teeth required to eat. Oh wait, the kid had already grown in a full set of teeth now. She normally wouldn’t give ice cream as a meal to a kid, especially when it was so cold to begin with. But it did need food in its stomach right now.

“Try this.” Mikie offered a spoonful of ice cream to the kid.

“…YUM!” The kid immediately had taken a liking to the sweet treat. No surprise, who doesn’t like ice cream?

Mikie knew this was only a temporary solution though, she will need to figure out what she can feed the kid for a balance meal as she tried to find the parents.

“Mama, where is Papa?” The kid asked after he finished a whole container of ice cream. That kid could eat!

“Papa huh? Do you know who your Papa is?” So the kid had a dad, there was hope for Mikie to find his parents soon it seems like.

“Papa is Papa.” The kid said confidently, which didn’t help Mikie.

“Would you be able to recognize him if you saw your Papa.” The child nods. “Then let’s go look for him in town once we find your something more suitable to wear.”

“Do I have to wear cloth? Too warm.” The kid pouts.

“Yes. No child of this household will run around the street naked.” What does this kid have against cloth? Wasn’t he cold?

In the end, Mikie had to just settle for a blanket poncho until she can get into town and see if any of the production guilds will have anything clothing suitable for a young child.

 

When Mikie hit the streets of Akiba, it was already past noon. Many adventurers and Landers alike were buzzing about. This was a great time to find this kid’s dad. As Mikie carried the kid through the streets, she got many stranger stares from everyone. Children that young were not common in this world. It was not possible to have an adventurer that young and Lander kids don’t look like this either. But Mikie chose to ignore all the stares and kept asked the kid if it recognized anyone but the kid just shook its head in disappointment.

“Ice cream!” The kid’s mood peaked up when they walked passed an ice cream shop. The ice cream shop was known for putting on a magic show as they make ice cream using sorcerers’ ice magic in front of everyone.

“You just had a lot of it a hour ago. Your parents are going to yell at me for getting you fat. Look how chubby you are already.” Mikie teased as she poked the child’s round cheeks.

“Hungry. I’m still growing!” The kid puffed.

“Alright. Alright. Just don’t tell your parents how much ice cream you had when we find them.”

While Mikie and the boy watched and waited for ice cream, something strange happened. The sorcerer was putting on an ice magic show like usual when his ice magic disappeared and the heavy cream he was trying to turn into ice cream stayed liquid. The sorcerer was confused to what had happened and the crowd laughed thinking this was part of the show. But if Mikie’s eyes didn’t deceive her, then she saw the boy in her arms seemed to suck in the magic just by inhaling air and ate the guy’s ice magic. When he did, he felt slightly bigger and heavier in her arms.

“More! More!” The kid cheered along with the rest of the crowd.

The sorcerer tried again with a different spell and failed again. This time Mikie definitely saw the boy inhaled the sparkles of ice magic and grew just a little bigger under the loose poncho. Mikie knew for sure the kid was not human and she needed to get out of here before anyone noticed. Once Mikie made her away out of the crowd, despite the kid’s complains, the shop returned to normal shortly after.

 

“You eat magic?” Mikie asked in a low voice. She set the kid down once they were somewhere out of town, with no one else in a 30 meter radius. The brat was getting a bit big and heavy to carry on her shoulders.

“Only ice magic because ice magic is tasty.” The kid smiled innocently.

After examining the kid closer, the kid looked even older compared to just this morning. The kid did start to look more male in features. He looked closer to a 7-year-old boy. His hair was longer. He was much taller. Heck, he went from saying Mama to forming complex sentences. On top of everything, he eats magic. This was definitely not the child of Adventures or Landers. If Mikie had to guess, from the growth rate and paleness of his skin, Mikie was confident that he was a vampire or at least half. This was just like what happened to that emo girl’s kid that she had with the sparkling vampire from those books.

“Who are you?” Mikie stepped backwards like the child was a bomb when he stepped forwards wanting to be picked up again. If the kid was a vampire, then she need to call a fire summon. Vampires were afraid of fire right? She should call upon the strongest summon she have, Sun!

“Mama named me Miir. Doesn’t Mama remember?” Miir had a hurt expression on his face.

“Miir?” Mikie asked. The dragon egg? Thinking back she had the egg up until this morning. After she woke up the egg was missing and this thing appeared.

“Yes. Miir heard Mama was lonely last night so Miir decided to hatch to keep Mama company. Is Mama not pleased?" Those big pouty puppy eyes again. Mikie hugged the little dragon tightly.

 

It seemed so surreal. The egg finally hatched and she was an official dragon mom. It seemed little Miir knew what was going on with the world even when he was still in side of his egg. She wondered how much other stuff the little dragon learned from inside the egg. She hoped all her swear words weren’t picked up by the intelligent dragon. But what still left unanswered was how Miir was so human looking and who was his Papa?

“Miir. Aren’t you a dragon? How are you so human looking?”

“Miir can transform!” Miir said proudly. Just as Miir said those words, a chilly wind explodes from his body and sent the blanket flying into Mikie’s face.

In place of the young child, a dragon the size of a medium sized dog with wings stood in its place. His scale was icy blue like the color of the boy’s hair and eyes. He had the shortest little crystal horns tips poking through his head. The only thing that stayed the same between the two forms was the giant crystal imbedded in his forehead.

‘Miir thought it would be easier to keep Mama company in a form closer to hers.’ The dragon said through telepathy.

So young yet so thoughtful. Mikie was so touch at the young dragon’s explanation and was moved to tears.

“So Miir, are you a girl or boy?” Mikie just wanted to make sure.

“What is a girl or boy?"

“Do you want to be more like Mama or Papa?” Mikie tried to think of easiest way to explain gender to the genderless being.

“Papa! I want to be strong like Papa so I can chase bad guys away from Mama.” Miir made up his mind easily. The kid was truthful and blunt. Mikie felt stab in a heart because little Miir doesn’t think she was strong.

Strong, so his Papa was strong. That was a hint right? Mikie thought hard about all the adventures in town that were considered strong that she had been in contact with. If strong were a standard, then the adventure class that came to mind would be the warrior class. Who did she know and had contact with since she had the dragon egg. There were the few people who she went to the dungeon with a month ago, harmless Naotsugu, young Touya, and Isaac from last night right before Miir hatched. Mikie’s blood went cold at the thought. It couldn’t be Isaac…right? There was only one way to find out.

Mikie asked Miir turn back into his child form and covered him in the blanket poncho despite his complaints. She decided to bring Miir to see Isaac in person to make sure he wasn’t the father. She prayed he wasn’t. She couldn’t imagine the rumor that would start around town if he somehow were to be. 

Before the two headed back into town, she made the dragon promise her two things. He would never reveal to anyone else that he was a dragon, he won’t attack anyone, and he won’t eat anyone else’s ice magic in town. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what the consequence would be if the town’s Royal Guards were released to hunt down the baby dragon who didn’t know any better. Out of everything, Miir was disappointed about not being able to freely eat ice magic around town. Mikie promised to feed him lots of her own ice magic if he was good, which made things better.

“Lots and lots and lots of ice magic from Mama?”

“Yes. Lots and lots and lots if you are good.”

"Yay!" Mikie taught Miir the pinky promise.

 

After bringing the child as discreetly as possible – Mikie claimed she was babysitting – to meet with Isaac, she was relieved that he was not Miir’s Papa. After walking in town until the early evening, Miir still didn’t recognize anyone as his dad.

During their search for the still unknown male, Mikie and Miir did run into Isuzu. Isuzu was waiting outside of the white cathedral in town where adventures revived after dying. Mikie’s heart felt heavy. Someone from the kids’ party had died. After a few questions, Mikie learned that the kids had run into more trouble than they had expected and there was a casualty with the name of Rundelhous. Isuzu, being more than just a normal friend in Mikie’s opinion, rushed back to town with ‘Call of Home’ to wait for Rundelhous here.

Mikie was surprised to hear that Rundelhous had died, and even more surprised that he was going to be revived here. Mikie had suspected that this young mage was a Lander before the trip because of the voices of the spirits, but it seemed that her suspicions were unfounded and completely wrong?

Shortly after the short chat, the bell chimed in a distance signaling the time of the night. A light descended from the sky into the holy place. A golden glow flashed within the cathedral could be seen from the windows. Someone had revived. Isuzu rushed inside impatiently; she was sure this was Rudy. Mikie followed the young girl to the doorsteps but waited there to give the two some privacy.

 _Right, just friends._ Mikie mused as she watched the interaction between the young bard and young sorcerer. There was love in the air and Mikie could sense it.

 

After the two youngsters exited the cathedral, Rundelhous immediately seem to notice Mikie presence and quickly greeted her much more politely than the first time they had met.

“Miss Mikie. Good evening, my name is Rundelhous, but please call me Rudy from now on.”

“You can just call me Mikie from now on.” Mikie didn’t need another person in her life to call her Miss Mikie. One was more than enough thanks. If she didn’t put a stop to this now, it might spread to the whole town. Mikie cringed at the thought.

From the reintroduction, Mikie found out that Rudy was now official part of the Log Horizon guild, thus a fellow guild member. After a hesitant goodbye between Isuzu and Rudy, Mikie took Miir and Rudy back to the guildhall where the three will wait for the rest of the guild members to come back from Chousin.

Mikie hoped she could sort out her thoughts before the group came back. She wasn’t sure how she should face the werecat again. Nyanta was really mad last night. Should she just act like nothing had happened? Should she avoid him? Or should she confront him? Mikie still didn’t know what she had done wrong last night to have provoked the cat, and couldn’t get her thoughts in order.

 

The wait, unfortunately, was non-existent. When Rudy, Miir, and Mikie arrived at the guildhall, the rest of the group had already arrived earlier in the afternoon. Familiar voices came from behind the guild door. Mikie had a sudden urge to run back into the town and rent out a room for a night, or a week. She wasn’t prepared to confront anyone in the guild yet. What did they think of her after she came back to town last night in the middle of the battle? Are they mad? Disappointed? Disgusted? Before Mikie could run away, Rudy and Miir already pushed opened doors.

“I’m Rudy. I have revived!”

“I’m home!”

The two entered the guild casually. Mikie poked her head in to examine the situation like a burglar studying the layout of the place they would rob. Shiroe, Naotsugu, Akatsuki, and the twins were glad to see Rudy back, and confused about who the kid was and whom he belonged to. Mikie was relieved that the werecat wasn’t anywhere in sight. If she can run up to her room really fast with Miir, she would be safe for tonight.

“It’s not nice to idle in the doorway, nya. You will let the bugs in, Miss Mikie nya.” Nyanta’s voice came from the behind.

“Eep!” Mikie yelled in surprised after being caught.

“PAPA!” At the same time little Miir ran and attached himself to the tall cat’s legs.

“What?!” Mikie and everyone inside the guild building yelled.

Nyanta just looked at the kid with an amused glint in his eyes.

At this point, Mikie wasn’t sure if this was better or worse than Isaac being the dragon’s dad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a great New Years everyone! Thank you all for all the views, kudos, bookmarks, and comments!
> 
> See you in 2018!


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